Category: NEWS

Marcel Marceau was known worldwide as a master of silence. The world-famous mime delighted audiences for decades as “Bip,” a tragicomic figure who encountered the world without words. But during World War II, his skills as a mime came in handy for another reason: He used them to save Jewish children during the Holocaust. Marceau was recruited to help the French Resistance by his cousin, Georges Loinger, a commander in the secret unit who was part of the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants, a Jewish relief group that smuggled Jewish children from occupied France to neutral countries. Loinger, who was credited with saving around 350 children, died on December 28, 2018 at the age of 108. Marcel Marceau, circa 1950. Abraham Pisarek/ullstein bild/Getty Images Their mission was to evacuate Jewish children who had been hiding in a French orphanage and get them to the Swiss border, where they would sneak to safety. But travelling with large groups of children was anything but easy. Marceau had a secret weapon: His...

The smile of an 8 year old boy holding a suitcase tight, ready to go: direction Israel. He was the youngest survivor of the Buchenwald Nazi concentration camp. He called himself Lolik but his real name is Meir Lau. He became chief rabbi of Netanya, chief rabbi of Tel Aviv, chief rabbi of Israel, and today he is the chairman of the Jerusalem Shoah museum committee. The Holocaust was one of the darkest periods in our history but miracles occurred. This story is living proof of this.  ...

Sanz-Klausenberger Rebbe Rabbi Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam (January 10, 1905 – June 18, 1994) was an Orthodox rabbi and the founding Rebbe of the Sanz-Klausenburg Hasidic dynasty. Halberstam became one of the youngest rebbes in Europe, leading thousands of followers in the town of Klausenburg, Romania, before World War II. His wife, eleven children and most of his followers were murdered by the Nazis while he was incarcerated in several concentration camps. After the war, he moved to the United States and later to Israel, rebuilt Jewish communal life in the displaced persons camps of Western Europe, re-established his dynasty in the United States and Israel, founded a Haredi neighbourhood in Israel and a Sanz community in the United States, established a hospital in Israel run according to Jewish law, and rebuilt his own family with a second marriage and the birth of seven more children. Yekutiel Yehudah Halberstam (1905-1994) was born to a Hasidic family of the Sanz dynasty in the small Jewish town of Rudnik, Poland. At just 14, he lost his father, and replaced him as the town rabbi. At the age...

The new Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire, Andrew Pratt, has emailed our President, Robert Pinkus to invite us to input thoughts and comments on our needs, as the Jewish Community, into the survey (link) below.       Dear Robert, I'm writing to you in your role as President of the Synagogue. I'm into my second day as the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Lancashire. The very important work at the moment is a crime plan, which we are currently in the process of consultation. This plan sets the direction for the Constabulary for the next four years and the means by which the police are held to account. It sets the priorities. There is a real need for the plan to reflect the views and needs of as many people as possible. I do not want the significant Jewish community of Lancashire to miss out. Is there any chance that this could be circulated within the congregation or I am always happy to come and speak. https://www.lancashire-pcc.gov.uk/community/surveys/ Here's...

My late father's story was a little different than most. He was not an American, but he was Jewish, and he did fight against the Nazis. In a slightly less conventional way, I guess you might say. Dad was born Georg Franz Hein in Hanover, Germany in 1919. In 1934, just after Hitler came to power, his widowed mother sent him to safety in London (along with his older brother in 1933, and his younger sister in 1938). There, he learned English and completed his education. On September 3, 1939, Dad stole the identity of a dead London schoolmate (Peter Stevens) and enlisted in the Royal Air Force. He trained as a bomber pilot, and was posted to a combat squadron on April 1, 1941. He flew 22 combat missions before his plane was hit by flak over Berlin, and he had to force-land (out of fuel) near Amsterdam on September 8, 1941. He destroyed the secret bits of the plane and...

10 Favourite Jewish Facts About Mel Brooks     There are so, so, so many reasons to kvell over Jewish legend Mel Brooks — one being that on June 28, the legendary comedian turned 95! Happy birthday, Mel, and mazel tov on this incredible milestone! The comedian, producer, and screenwriter is very impressive. First of all, Brooks is one of few EGOT winners in the world — he has won four Emmys, three Grammys, one Oscar, and three Tony Awards. Um, WOW! What’s more, throughout his long career, Brooks helped transform the landscape of comedy by making characters whose humor is unmistakably Jewish, from their names (“The Producers” protagonists Bialystock and Bloom), to their language (a Yiddish-speaking Native American in “Blazing Saddles”), to their neuroses and obsessions (Nazis, the Inquisition, Broadway, psychiatry). On the occasion of his birthday, we are reminded that there are numerous reasons to appreciate Brooks’ life and works. For this reason, we have compiled some amazing Jewish facts this actor, comedian, filmmaker and mensch — from his Jewish family and friends...

Prince Charles to write foreword for book by Shoah survivor & her great-grandson Heir to the throne will introduce 'Lily's Promise' by 97-year-old Auschwitz survivor Lily Ebert and her 17-year-old great-grandson Dov Forman Dov Forman with his great-grandma Lily Ebert     The Prince of Wales will write the foreword for a forthcoming memoir of a 97-year-old Auschwitz survivor. The heir to the throne will introduce a book jointly written by Hungary-born Lily Ebert and her great-grandson, 17-year-old Dov Forman. The book, ‘Lily’s Promise: How I Survived Auschwitz and Found the Strength to Live’, will be released on 2 September, and has already received high-profile praise. It has been endorsed by historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, The Apprentice host Lord Alan Sugar, journalist Robert Peston, Countdown presenter Rachel Riley, Chief Rabbi Mirvis and Paweł Sawicki of the Auschwitz Memorial Museum. Lily’s promise (Macmillan)   Forman has used social media to share Lily’s testimony, amassing a million followers on TikTok. He has gained thousands of followers on Twitter, where he has posted about...

South London Synagogue to close as numbers fall Streatham-based US congregation, whose history dates back to 1867, can no longer sustain a minyan With “great sadness”, the South London Synagogue congregation has voted for closure, a decision endorsed by the United Synagogue council this week. Dwindling numbers and the declining health of leading members are behind the demise of the Streatham-based shul, which incorporated a number of former South London communities with a history dating back to 1867. The current synagogue opened in 1986 and enjoyed a regular minyan until the pandemic. Only 67 of its 107 members live in the South London area. Thirty-eight are aged between 81-90; ten are aged between 91-100. Just two are under 40. The shul has been shut since the High Holy-Days, when the biggest attendance was 30 (including 12 non-members) on Yom Kippur day. It did not attract a minyan over Succot. Online services and other activities have been continuing and the Rev Stewart Myers — who has been serving...

While he was in Dachau, a Jew who was being taken to his death suddenly flung a small bag at my father, Judah Wallis. He caught it, thinking it might contain a piece of bread. Upon opening it, however, he was disturbed to discover a pair of tefillin. Judah was very frightened because he knew that were he to be caught carrying tefillin, he would be put to death instantly. So he hid the tefillin under his shirt and headed for his bunkhouse. In the morning, just before the appel [roll call], while still in his bunkhouse, he put on the tefillin. Unexpectedly, a German officer appeared. He ordered him to remove the tefillin, noted the number on Judah’s arm. At the appel, in front of thousands of silent Jews, the officer called out Judah’s number and he had no choice but to step forward. The German officer waved the tefillin in the air and said, "Dog! I sentence you to death...

How Golda Meir, Israel’s ‘Iron Lady’, helped establish an independent Jewish state Golda Meir was the fourth prime minister of Israel and the first woman to hold that position. She was hugely influential in the building of a Jewish and Zionist Israel, and a significant – and also controversial – figure in world politics. Born Golda Mabovitch in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1898, Meir grew up in the United States and died in Jerusalem in 1978. This was a common Jewish migration pattern in that era, as people escaped the persecutions of the Pale of Settlement – the areas of the Russian empire in which Jews were allowed to settle – for a new life in the West. Having served as Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union, minister of foreign affairs, minister of labour and minister of internal affairs, Meir became prime minister in 1969. She held this role until 1974, resigning after the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Her political philosophy One of her biographers, Meron Medzini, has...