Category: NEWS

16 October 2023 To the Jewish communities of Greater Manchester and region In these sad and darkest of times for Israel that most of us can remember, on behalf of myself and the Management Board of the JRC, I wanted to update you on the incredible work taking place behind the scenes both nationally and at a local level to re-assure you our Jewish community is and continues to feel safe and protected. In an unprecedented show of support for the UK, the government and official opposition are standing behind Israel’s right to protect itself. They are united in their unequivocal condemnation of Hamas and their recognition that there is absolutely, no moral equivalence to the justification of their barbaric and heinous atrocities. Yesterday, the Chief Rabbi met with King Charles in a similar show of solidarity with the Jewish community. We have also appreciated Downing Street, Parliament, City Hall and Central Library being lit with the Israeli flag. Around the clock, our national community leadership and particularly the Jewish Leadership Council, Board of...

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Marjorie Whitehead : My sincere condolences, my heart breaks for Israel.   May God care for you all Dear. Robert It is some time ago, that we met you along with your lovely wife when we donated some medical items for Ukraine at your home I want to assure you, and everybody attending  Shul, that we are here for you, during this incredibly difficult time. I used to visit Israel often   ( when I was younger and could  was / run  everywhere ).!!!! The nation has a special place n my heart. I have felt. “ broken  “ since the news broke yesterday morning.  Can't believe this. Too many precious lives BLESSINGS from both of us. Your friends -  Norma and Peter...

Israel’s jihad remains my jihad, the IDF my soul soldiers For Hamas, there is only the killing, the maiming, the violations, the debasing. It was there all along, but we didn’t want to see it. 'Be not afraid, for you go not alone.' IDF security forces patrol in the southern city of Sderot, October 11, 2023. (Oren Ben Hakoon/Flash90 OCT 12, 2023, 4:53 PM Ten years after I wrote so, Israel’s jihad remains mine. Ten years on, now closer to sixty than not, I am beginning to understand that my jihad, like Israel’s, is a lifelong undertaking. My struggle is Israel’s struggle; our struggle is our compass, our true north, our true religion. As an observant pluralist Muslim who rejects all forms of Islamism – radical Islam – whether nonviolent or not, I remain on a personal crusade to delegitimize every Islamist who claims to speak for me, who claims to speak for Islam, who dares injure or slay any of God’s viceregents on earth – my...

The Jewish Commando Who Rescued His Parents From a Nazi Concentration Camp In the waning days of World War II, Manfred Gans drove across Nazi Germany in a borrowed jeep with no brakes, in a desperate bid to find his parents. Visitors walk through the cemetery of the former Nazi concentration camp in Terezin, Czech Republic, in January 2019. (Petr David Josek/AP) Manfred Gans had been waiting for this moment for the whole war, and now that it was here, he was stuck on desk duty. He had done his best since fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938 to keep track of his parents as they tried to escape the Nazis, and he had vowed to himself that he would rescue them as soon as he could. It was probably impossible, he knew, but as a highly trained British commando, it was slightly less impossible for him than just about anyone else on the planet. But first, he had to get back into the field of...

Emanuel Feldinger 1913 - 1979   By Rabbi Geoffrey Shisler Menachem Mendel Feldinger was born in Munkatch (Mukachevo), Hungary. Situated near three borders, Munkatch was a large market town, and the young Emanuel, who spoke several languages, made his pocket-money by standing in the market and translating for the merchants from the various countries. Strikingly handsome, with a black pencil-line moustache, he was blessed with a beautiful baritone voice which came to the attention of the Munkatcher Rebbe (the Minchat Elazar) who agreed to his appointment as Chazan of the main shul in Munkatch at the age of 21! The leaders of the community insisted that, since the previous Chazan had been a shochet, Menachem Mendel should also learn Shechita. On his arrival in the Shechita house, he promptly fainted and had to be carried outside! Declaring that he would never learn Shechita, he mastered the art so well that when Dayan Weiss, the Av Bet Din of Manchester needed to demonstrate Shechita to the local...

Oz 77. Honouring Kahalani Fifty years after the Yom Kippur War Avigdor Kahalani in 1973. Illustration (c) Tuvia Book, 2023 This year the State of Israel marks fifty years since the Yom Kippur War.  Israeli intelligence and strategic planners were caught by surprise on the holiest day of the Jewish calendar by underestimating the enemy, and convincing themselves that the Arabs lacked the ability to alter their combat methods.  This way of thinking was known as “The Conception.” Despite committing huge strategic and doctrinal errors, the IDF prevailed, thanks in no small part to the courage, initiative and combat skills of its soldiers, particularly its elite armour crews and commanders. The lone force standing between the Syrians and Israel’s possible destruction was the IDF’s 77th Armoured Battalion, known as Oz 77, under the command of 29-year-old Lt. Col. Avigdor Kahalani.  Kahalani, one of Israel’s greatest living war heroes,  is the son of Immigrants from Yemen. Despite having received horrific burns in his tank during the...