Author: Glen Berd

Try Walking Sideways! By Rebbetzen Anna Bergson   I was honoured to be asked to deliver the Devar Torah for the Global Women's Hallel Zoom this week.   Of all months to speak about...the Hebrew month of Tammuz only really elicits thoughts of doom and gloom, sadness and mourning as we start the 3 weeks and events leading up to the destruction of the Temple. Further thought lead me to even more less than upbeat connotations eg fasting during a UK heatwave (always seems to be during the 3 weeks!), overgrown hair and simchos on hold...   Lucky Rebbetzens who had previous happy months to speak about! We've had a run of them from Shevat bearing the acronymn 'Shenishema Besurot Tovot' – that we should hear good things - Shevat marks the beginning of spring and leads in to the month of Adar which is the month of joy/Purim. Next is Nissan which is the month of freedom/Pesach. Iyar, another acronymn 'Ani Hashem Rofecha' – I am...

Urgent – please email your MP now! There is a crunch vote on Monday in the House of Commons on whether to approve the Second Reading of the Government’s Bill to ban councils and other public bodies from engaging in boycotts and divestment from Israel. MPs are being bombarded with emails from anti-Israel activists so we urgently need you to email your local MP. Click here to take part! Thank you for your support. Please forward this email to your friends and family and urge them to take part too. Please send any replies from MPs to me at luke@webelieveinisrael.org.uk Best wishes, Luke Akehurst, Director, We Believe in Israel P.S. Can you donate to help fund our campaigning? https://www.webelieveinisrael.org.uk/donate ...

INTERVIEW with JONATHAN LEVER Born in 1936, Jonathan, his parents Dorothy and Cyril, and one year old brother Brian, arrived in St Annes from Manchester in 1940.They lived in a large house called “Sandhills” on Clifton Drive. It had a huge garden and several outhouses. Jonathan describes it as a place of adventure. Jonathan remembers several Manchester families with boys of his own age: The Libberts; the Jeffays; the Feathers and the Sassoons. They spent a great deal of time riding their bikes and watching the German planes across the water bombing Liverpool and Preston docks. A German plane crashed just outside Lytham and Jonathan remembers that it was put on display behind the Clifton Arms Hotel. Cyril Lever was a cinema owner who travelled into Manchester daily with other Jewish businessmen on what became known as the Club Train. Jonathan and his father occasionally attended the synagogue on Orchard Road.He was a pupil at the Cheder, but often bunked off and went out on his bike. He recalls that his parents regularly...

Sir Moses Montefiore: A benign Imperialist. What had begun during the reign of George III, with the building of some fine synagogues, Plymouth and Exeter being examples, Jews began to become increasingly prominent in British society, reaching new heights under Queen Victoria. The galaxy of Jewish stars included household names like Disraeli, Sassoon and Rothschild, but others excelled as authors, Israel Zwangwill and Lily Montagu, to mention but two, and architects, one of the most famous being David Mocatta; and in the visual arts Solomon Alexander Hart and Simeon Solomon. The impression Victorian Britain was totally accepting of its Jewish population is, of course, a distortion of reality; there was anti-Semitism, and ‘The Illustrated London News’ ran Joseph Pennell’s series that was blatantly anti-Jewish; but the magazine also championed the right of Jews to be members of Parliament. It is generally agreed the most outstanding Jew of the age was Sir Moses Montefiore, because of his Philanthropic works and his enormous diplomatic influence. Moses Montefiore was of Italian Sephardic ancestry. He was...

Harry Houdini: The Skeptical Son of a Rabbi “It is surprising how many sons of Jewish clergyman there are on the stage,” Harry Houdini said in 1918, speaking about the Rabbis’ Sons Theatrical Benevolent Association, which he founded along with Al Jolson and Irving Berlin (among others), as a philanthropic endeavour. “Sons of Rabbis Organize for War Aid”, appearing in The Sentinel, 2 August 1918. From the National Library of Israel Digital Collection By 1918, Houdini was brushing shoulders with the cinema and theatre bigwigs, having established himself as a conjuring magician way back in the 1890s, and working his way up in show business. The Jewish magician’s ascent would eventually lead to a common perception that Jews had a natural affinity for this “supernatural” trade…   “Leading American Magicians Are Jews”, appearing in The Forward, 9 September 1928. From the National Library of Israel Digital Collection Houdini knew from an early age how reality and truth could be manipulated, due in great part to the fact that...

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Manchester Jewish Museum reveals secrets of synagogue time capsule IMAGE SOURCE,CHRIS PAYNE Image caption, Eugenie Karen (right) said the documents and newspapers in the capsule will survive for years to come A time capsule which was found in the walls of a former synagogue has revealed its 150-year-old treasures. Builders found the glass container while working on a £6m upgrade of the Grade II-listed building which houses Manchester Jewish Museum in 2020. The jar, which was sealed on 11 June 1873, contained copies of The Times and The Jewish Chronicle and coins. Eugenie Karen, conservation officer at Manchester Central Library, said the items' condition was "remarkably good". The building in Cheetham Hill, which was designed by architect Edward Salomons, first opened as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in 1874. IMAGE SOURCE,CHRIS PAYNE Image caption, Builders found the time capsule during a £6m renovation of the building A museum representative said it was originally built to serve Manchester's Sephardi Jewish communities and was "designed and decorated to reflect the Spanish and Portuguese heritage"...

Meet the man who just bought a 1,000-year-old Bible for £30million Alfred Moses, 94, has just taken delivery of the Codex Sassoon, the world’s oldest nearly-complete copy of the Hebrew Bible. The Codex Sassoon, the world’s oldest nearly-complete copy of the Hebrew Bible. On Wednesday morning, Alfred Moses, 94, sat in a small white armchair at a round wooden table in a Manhattan office building as a historian gingerly turned the pages of a more than 1,000-year-old book in front of him. Two weeks earlier, Moses had paid a record-setting sum for the book — more than £30 million in total. But this was the first time he had ever seen it. The book was the Codex Sassoon, the world’s oldest nearly-complete copy of the Hebrew Bible. That morning, in Sotheby’s Upper East Side office, Sharon Mintz, the auction house’s senior Judaica specialist, was giving Moses and some of his relatives a history lesson on his new acquisition. Mintz turned the pages with clean, bare hands, noting...