𝗔 𝗬𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗡𝗼 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿

As the final blast of the shofar sounded last Yom Kippur, no-one could have foreseen what the following 12 months had in store. Not only the coronavirus pandemic that has swept the world and taken the lives of many within British Jewry and in Israel, but the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and this week with Bahrain, with more countries traditionally hostile to the Jewish state likely to follow.

Nor could anyone have predicted that synagogues would have been barred to congregants for months, nor that there would be no shivas allowed — and that no more than 10 people could attend funerals. Whilst those regulations have been relaxed somewhat, attendance in shuls over the High Holy Days will be strictly limited to allow for social distancing, and there will be restrictions on shofar blowing indoors. Sadly, this is the new norm and we can only pray that there are no attempts to break the rules, as there have been since the pandemic took hold.

The positive aspect of the past 12 months has been President Donald J. Trump’s positive involvement in the Middle East, which has seen Israel’s normalisation of relations with Arab states and his warmth towards Jewry, Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu – בנימין נתניהו

There are those within our community who still refuse to trust him or his motives. But the facts are there for all to see and thus far he has not let world Jewry down. He is capricious and, on a whim, can turn against even his strongest allies. But while the sun shines, we should make hay.

We can but hope that by the time next Rosh Hashana comes around, the pandemic will be consigned to history and that scientists — possibly Israeli boffins — will have invented a suitable vaccine.