Category: NEWS

At this difficult time in the history of Israel it is imperative the Jewish people remain united, a plea Chief Rabbi Mirvis made recently, and equally important remain so after the cessation of hostilities. The judgement of the International Court of Justice will be a seminal moment for all of us because it will either exonerate Israel of the perfidious charges brought by South Africa or find in favour of the accusation that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza; the consequences of the latter do not bear thinking about! I have no doubt what the verdict should be and my latest blog attest my faith in justice. Best wishes, Am Yisrael Chai  Peter   Stand Firm: Am Yisrael Chai! The South African government has submitted to the International Court of Justice in The Hague its highly selective evidence of Israel’s alleged genocide of Palestinians living in Gaza, and advocates for the State of Israel have responded by providing hard evidence of the IDF’s uncovering of...

As many of you know, Malcolm Weisman toured the country visiting and helping small Jewish communities over many decades. Recently a book has been made of his memories during that time, and launched at an in-person event in London. Now even more people are gathering to contribute their memories of Malcolm visiting their communities, with a special JSCN online event to launch his book. I am sure many of your members would like to join in, so please do let them know about this special occasion on 21 January. LINK: https://jscn.org.uk/booking ...

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 opera. They loved opera so much, they would go to Germany for the weekend just to see the opera there. In the 1930’s. No one paid attention to them crossing the border, a couple of dowdy women in their homemade clothes, nor on the return trip with their furs and jewels. What Ida and Louise were doing, in addition to going to their beloved opera, was collecting valuables from would be refugees to help them in their new lives. The sisters would find people who would vouch for the refugees, find people willing to home them, assemble papers for them, and even rented an apartment as a...

From Peter Beyfus The address by Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana is one of the most powerful speeches in support of Israel I have heard to date. I am sure the St Anne’s community will take heart from his robust defence of Israel and its action to eliminate Hamas https://youtu.be/SqOgiI1qUe8...

https://youtu.be/G7uUGJhiehM...

Next year - 2024 - our synagogue will be 60 years old, and it's the current home of the St. Anne's Jewish Community, which will be 100 years old next year ! Check it out - we're still here, and counting ! In 1964, the Chief Rabbi, The Very Reverend Dr. Israel Brodie popped up from London to consecrate us.        In 2012, the once vibrant Blackpool Jewish community closed their synagogue for the final time, and came to join us here in St. Annes     Chanukah 1964 - who remembers this ??? Are there any youngsters still around today ??      ...

A friend in Israel writes : Explaining something that people abroad cannot understand - even, I sometime feel, Jews in the diaspora. Every one one of us here in Israel is either bereaved or knows someone bereaved. Our soldiers are our boys and girls, not some faceless professionals. In the reserves are not just sons and daughters, but mothers and fathers. (A lady I know just lost her grandson, who insisted on protecting his country. He leaves a wife and a baby son) This article is by Melanie Phillips: She sums it up very well. Israel's invisible victims. The sickening reaction of so much of the western public to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza doesn’t just reveal a frightening degree of bigotry, double standards and moral bankruptcy. It doesn’t just involve a staggering absence of knowledge about the Middle East, the history of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland and the fact that the forces Israel is fighting are also waging a war against the...