Dear friends Chag Sameach and a Shona Tova from St Anne’s Synagogue.  This year our hearts are heavy with anxiety for Jews everywhere but especially for our friends and family in Israel and we hope for a better future soon. Am Yisrael Chai Glen and Spencer Berd Website Administrator

Manchester Piccadilly to Euston train via Austria, Budapest and Williamsburg! – A Story of the power of faith to transform lives On a recent train journey to London for the Chief Rabbi’s annual conference, I met an amazing woman from the Satmar community who inspired me with her story of faith and hope in the […]

Ida and Louise Cook were unmarried sisters in their mid thirties who lived with their parents. One wrote romance novels for Mills and Boon (England’s Harlequin equivalent) and the other commuted from their sleepy London suburb to work as a secretary for the civil service. They wore home made clothes and shared a love of […]

The appalling news that the IDF have recovered the bodies of six hostages, murdered by Hamas days before their discovery, once again underlines the nature of the terrorist opponents of Israel. However much one wants to believe dialogue is possible with people who do not share any semblance of the Judaea-Christian moral code, the facts […]

Sir Keir Starmer’s landslide victory on the 5th of July may have been greeted by many as welcome news, but by others with a sense of trepidation. The turnout in the British 2024 General Election was not anything to be complacent about: just 60% of the electorate bothered to cast their votes; and Labour enjoyed […]

Hello Darkness my old friend … What a glorious friendship journey! “Heart-warming story – especially for Simon and Garfunkel lovers, who aren’t familiar with the story but love the song . . . . . “Hello darkness, my old friend…” Everybody knows the iconic Simon & Garfunkel song, but do you know the amazing story […]

Ida and Louise Cook were unmarried sisters in their mid thirties who lived with their parents. One wrote romance novels for Mills and Boon and the other commuted from their sleepy London suburb to work as a secretary for the civil service. They wore home made clothes and shared a love of opera. They loved […]

[Pinched from Andrea Samuels] Just read this hilarious post on Twitter by Matthew Feinberg (@thewebbie).   Too good not to share… Jewish Middle Aged Dating Ah, being a single middle-aged Jewish man and trying to understand Jewish women, now that’s a tale as old as The Torah. So there I am, minding my own business, trying […]

The Future May Not Be Rosy, But Red By Peter Beyfus Sir Keir Starmer’s landslide victory on the 5th of July may have been greeted by many as welcome news, but by others with a sense of trepidation. The turnout in the British 2024 General Election was not anything to be complacent about: just 60% […]

From: “Tony Frais (Tiscali)” <afrais@tiscali.co.uk> Date: 16 June 2024 at 19:21:42 BST To: office@shulbythesea.co.uk Subject: THANKS FOR THE CLOTHING FOR DISPLACED FAMILIES Reply-To: “Tony Frais (Tiscali)” <afrais@tiscali.co.uk>  Dear Congregation, I am writing in awe and amazement at the generous Chessed from your Shool Community in sending clothes for the Displaced Families in Israel. Our hearts break at the suffering there. […]

A breath-taking speech by Miriam Novak at the UN General Assembly. Don’t miss a word! For two thousand years we have lived among you, offering you our knowledge, discoveries and inventions. At the UN Special General Assembly in New York, held at the request of the leaders of the European Union and the New Arab […]

Dear Robert and all I’m writing to express my appreciation for the tremendous welcome, hospitality and fabulous food  that I received from you all over Shavuot, both in the shul and at Rabbi Danny’s house. Thanks again And very best regards Matt ……………….ooo…………… Good evening Just a message to say thanks to you all for […]

An incredible letter written by a non-Jewish Scottish professor to his students who voted to boycott Israel It’s a response from Dr. Denis MacEoin to the motion put forward by The Edinburgh Student’s Association to boycott all things Israeli, in which they claim Israel is under an apartheid regime. Denis is an expert in Middle […]

‘This war, like the next war, is a war to end war’ The latest announcement from some of Europe’s enlightened powers is to recognize Palestinian statehood, whatever that means. The Republic of Ireland, Spain and Norway have thrown their “considerable” weight behind what over 140 UN member states have previously recognized as the claim to nationhood […]

Welcome to our bi-monthly Meet and Greet with Rebbetzen Anna, very generously hosted by Jennie Lipshaw. As we approach Shavuot, otherwise famously known as ‘the cheesecake festival’,  our topic today was the Book of Ruth – a sort of biblical Jilly Cooper story but with much more modesty. Ruth was so impressed with her mother-in-law […]

A different Yom Ha’atzmaut but one that reinforces why we love Israel so much. The return of the Jewish people to their homeland after 2000 years of exile is one of the greatest stories ever told. The story continues, and I hope we all appreciate that we are all part of this current chapter. Last […]

These are my People Diaspora Jewry is going through an unprecedented trauma of questioning where they stand in the present Israel-Hamas war. Jews around the world have been subject to intimidation, accusations in being complicit in genocide and a whole host of antisemitic slurs from controlling the world’s press, to controlling world finance, and you […]

TV review: Passover UK: A Jewish Journey. Late but great Sam Holder’s programme about Pesach gave me warm, fuzzy feelings      BY KEREN DAVID Edwin Shuker at his interfaith Seder When Passover UK: A Jewish Journey showed up on ITV’s schedules nearly a week after the end of the festival, it caused a fair bit […]

Passover UK: An ancient Jewish festival in modern Britain Passover UK: A Jewish Journey will air on ITV 1 and ITV X on Sunday 5th May 2024 at 10.15pm. ITV News reporter Sam Holder joined families across the UK as they celebrated Passover There is an old Jewish saying: “For every two Jews, there are […]

An interesting review of the BBC Documentary from a London based Barmitzvah planner. Full disclosure Before I share my own reflections, you ought to know that I had some involvement in the show. In the closing hours of 2023, I got a message from one of my b’mitzvah families asking if it would be okay […]

An interview with Jonathan Pollard (son-in-law of our member, Stephen Abrahams).  Jonathan spent 30 years in prison in America, accused of being an Israeli spy. He is now in a very happy place. released in late 2020, and living in Israel with his new wife, Stephen’s daughter and 7 children.    Click the link below […]

The war of attrition in Gaza has undoubtedly led to the degrading of Hamas but is unlikely, as many military commentators have observed, to completely destroy this terrorist organisation either in frustrating its capacity to launch attacks and/or reduce its political potency; so should Israel, or rather Netanyahu, review his strategy in the light of […]

Peter Beyfus kindly sent the following : Belated Chag Purim Sameach I attach a poem, written in the immediate wake of the UN resolution and the abstention of the USA, rather than an article because I wanted to capture the duplicity of Israel’s so-called friends. Best wishes Peter   Am Yisrael Chai Israel’s Maccabean spirit […]

“PADDINGTON BEAR” author Michael Bond, based his beloved character on Jewish Children who were Refugees in war-torn Europe (WWII). The Paddington Bear story goes as follows: The Brown family finds a bear from “Darkest Peru” sitting on a suitcase at London’s Paddington train station. He has a note hanging around his neck that says “Please […]

A new edition of Jewish Heritage in Britain and Ireland celebrates the undiscovered heritage of Anglo-Jewry. First published in 2006, it remains the only comprehensive guide to historic synagogues and sites in the British Isles. Included are many of England’s splendid synagogues; from Bradford Synagogue built in Islamic revival style to Brighton’s opulent Middle Street Synagogue […]

Elkie Brooks was born Elaine Bookbinder in Broughton Park, Salford, the daughter of Marjorie Violet (née Newton) and Kalmon Charles Bookbinder. She was raised in Prestwich. She attended North Salford Secondary Modern School, Her older brother is Anthony Bookbinder (born 28 May 1943), who went by the stage name of Tony Mansfield, and was drummer […]

Day 137 – my open letter to HRH Prince William From : Deborah Nathan Dear Prince William, I want to start by saying that I am writing to you as an admirer. I am a long term supporter of the British Royal family in general and of you and the Princess of Wales in particular. […]

This picture was taken on April 11, 1909, in Tel Aviv. It was a raffle to give away land lots upon which these people would build Tel Aviv’s first houses. These courageous men and women decided to come to this patch of empty sand to achieve one mission: to build the first Hebrew city. Tel […]

War Cannot be Sanitised FEB 10, 2024, “War is cruelty. There’s no use trying to reform it. The crueller it is the sooner it will be over.”   W. T. Sherman I regard myself as being a reasonable guy, trying very hard to understand the arguments on both sides of a  dispute; but there are occasions […]

An Interview with Louise Ellman DBE – Scroll down to click on the video Louise Ellman DBE   An Accidental Start Adventures at Lancashire Parliament Beckons Transport, Israel and…Antisemitism The youngest member of Lancashire County Council when she was elected in 1970,Louise, now Dame, Ellman rose to become Council Leader from 1981 to 1997 and […]

The real Popeye, Frank “Rocky” Fiegel was born into a Jewish family, in 1868 in Poland.  The family emigrated to the U.S. when he was a child where he later became a sailor after settling in Illinois. His 20-year maritime career earned him a reputation as a skilled fighter with a deformed eye and a […]

Holocaust Memorial Day 2024 A poem by Peter Beyfus What other species takes delight in embracing destruction as its fate? But humankind, the pinnacle of creation, thirsts for blood; And down the ages the “other” has been the target of hate; A Lucerferian curse that formed humanity’s DNA from before the flood. Hubris is no […]

How a self-proclaimed ‘goy’ named Norman Jewison made one of the most Jewish movies ever Jewison, who died at 97, made ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ a big-screen phenomenon Director Norman Jewison, right, and star Topol as Tevye on the set of the film version of Fiddler on the Roof.Photo by Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino […]