CTJC Chanukah Bulletin 2017

CTJC bulletin

Chanukah

Kislev 5778 December 2017

CTJC Cambridge Traditional Jewish Congregation Bulletin number 121

Contents A note from the Editor............................................................................. 3 From the Chair ......................................................................................... 3 Community news ..................................................................................... 6 Communal information ........................................................................... 6 The 80th anniversary of CUJS and 3 Thompson's Lane .......................... 8 My side of the Mechitza ........................................................................ 15 Questions and answers with the Chief Rabbi ........................................ 17 Celebrating 80........................................................................................ 19 Yizkor-gate ............................................................................................. 22 Spontaneous acts of remarkable kindness ............................................ 23 Belonging ............................................................................................... 27 The Woolf Institute ................................................................................ 31 Anne Summers: Christian and Jewish Women in Britain, 1880-1940, Living with Difference ............................................................................ 34 Some thoughts at the Centenary of the Balfour Declaration ................ 36 The story of the readmission and its relevance to Anglo Jewry today .. 41 The Cambridge City Food Bank .............................................................. 47 Count Filippo Fiorentini ......................................................................... 50 Last minute Chanukah mince pies ......................................................... 52 Festival calendar .................................................................................... 55 From the children .................................................................................. 56 For the children ..................................................................................... 59 Views expressed in this bulletin do not necessarily represent the views of the bulletin Editors, nor of the Committee of the CTJC. Front cover: See "From the children" Page 2

A note from the Editor Jane Liddell-King A huge thank you to all who sent their contributions in on time. What a pleasure to have contributions from the younger member s of the community. I hope these prove inspirational: the first of many to follow. See what you can do before Pesach, please.

Meanwhile, happy Chanukah!

From the Chair Jonathan Allin, Chair, CTJC Welcome to a very special Chanukah 5778 bulletin. The quality, diversity, and number of articles is truly amazing. As well as reminding us what it is to be a Jew, the range of articles will remind us what it is to be a Jew in Cambridge.

There are three anniversaries to recognise: 100 years since the Balfour Declaration, 80 years since Thompson's Lane was established, and by no means least the 80th birthdays of Ros and Barry Landy. We have much to celebrate.

Special thanks must once again go to Jane Liddel-King for commissioning the articles, and Barry and Ros Landy for producing the bulletin. Under "Who does what" you'll find names and functions: we have an awesome set of skills, though there are still one or two gaps.

On a personal note, Lauren and I were recently in Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham to celebrate my great-uncle's 90th birthday.

The shul is a grade II listed building. Consecrated in 1856, it was recently renovated by the community: the results are both beautiful and awe-inspiring. This is a large and traditional synagogue, complete with ladies' gallery. My great uncle recalled services when he was younger: Yom Kippur the shul was packed and a chazzan with operatic abilities was essential. Today, Shabbat will attract perhaps 20 men, Page 3

which is a sad under-utilisation of this magnificent shul. We are, rightly, concerned by what we perceive as a low attendance at Thompson's Lane. But perhaps we shouldn't be too dispirited: Cambridge is less than one eighth the size of Birmingham, yet our attendance is similar.

However we can't be complacent. Please think about what would make shul services more attractive to you or those you know.

I'd like to mention the passing of Jack and Jackie Gutheridge. Although not members of CTJC, they were a long-standing part of the community and will be sadly missed.

Together with Lauren and our family, may I wish you ‫חג אורים שמח‬.

Who does what Chairman Treasurer Secretary Bulletin supported by: CUJS liaison Kiddushim Board of Deputies Gabbai Building CTJC community rabbi

Jonathan Allin Jo Landy Barry Landy Jane Liddell-King Barry Landy Ros Landy Jo Landy Jonathan Harris Robert Marks Yoav Git Tim Goldrein Rabbi Reuven Leigh

CTJC web site: www.ctjc.org.uk

Subscriptions and donations Members who have not yet paid their subscription for this year (201718) should now do so, together with the Board of Deputies levy (£30), the levy to the Chief Rabbi’s Office (£8 which should be paid by each male member), and any donations to the UJIA, the CTJC or the Cambridge Chaplaincy that you wish to make.

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Donations to the Community Rabbi Fund will be used to support our promise to contribute to our Rabbi’s activities.

The subscription fees for 2017/2018, as agreed at the AGM, are: Full family £201.00 Associate family £135.00 Full single £139.00 Associate single £89.00 These fees may be varied to suit individual circumstances. The Treasurer will be pleased to be consulted confidentially.

The subscription may be paid by direct bank transfer to sort code 2017-19 account 20199192, in which case please send an explanatory email to the treasurer at treasurer@ctjc.org.uk.

Alternatively send a cheque, payable to CTJC, together with this slip indicating how much is being paid in each category, to Jo Landy, 52 Maids Causeway Cambridge CB5 8DD Name: Address:

Subscription: Community Rabbi Fund donation: CTJC donation: Board of Deputies: Chief Rabbi’s Office: UJIA donation: Chaplaincy donation: Total: Visitors for whom membership is not appropriate are invited to make a donation.

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CTJC is a registered Charity, number 282849. Payment from tax-paid income can be made by Gift Aid, which will enable the CTJC to recover the tax paid. A suitable declaration is available from the Secretary at secretary@ctjc.org.uk.

To join the CTJC email list please send an email to secretary@ctjc.org.uk or chair@ctjc.org.uk.

If you would like to sponsor a kiddush, please email kiddushim@ctjc.org.uk.

Community news Mazel Tov To Sarah and Arie Schechter on the engagement of Shai to Rebecca, daughter of Miriam and Jonathan Winer

Welcome Elliot & Sarah Salinger Adam Davis & Alexandra Schimmer and family

Condolences To Jonathan Allin on the loss of his mother Patricia, Jerusalem

Communal information Services in the Synagogue Friday evening

Shabbat morning Sunday morning

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In Term: Winter Ma'ariv 6.00 pm Summer Minchah and Ma'ariv 7.30pm In Vacation: Check the website, www.ctjc.org.uk 9.30 am in the Synagogue 8.00 am in the Synagogue (most weeks)

Learning, Talmud Shiur Usually 8.00 pm at 23 Parsonage Street, led by Prof. Stefan Reif. The group is currently studying (Masechet Betza). The shiur is held on a convenient evening in those weeks when Prof Reif is in Cambridge. For more information email chevra@ctjc.org.uk.

Kosher meat and groceries Derby Stores (26 Derby St, Newnham, 354391) stock prepacked Kosher groceries and meat, and will buy to order. They get fresh from London midday Thursday, and stay open till 8pm. Sainsbury's in Coldham's Lane also stocks a range of Kosher Goods including frozen chicken legs.

Ocado has some Kosher foods in its delivery list.

Hospital visiting Contact Sarah Schechter (329172), Tirzah Bleehen (354320) for coordination if you wish to volunteer to help, or need to organise some visits.

Barry Landy or Rabbi Reuven Leigh (354603) are prepared to attend hospitals to read prayers.

Due to personal privacy concerns the hospital no longer informs us when Jewish patients are admitted. If you wish to be visited, please let one of the above know when you are about to enter hospital.

Chevra Kadisha Contact Barry Landy (570417), Brendel Lang (353301), or Robert Marks (07791 788 584)

Religious events For services, barmitzvahs, weddings, brit milah etc, contact Barry Landy (570417) or Rabbi Leigh (354603)

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The 80th anniversary of CUJS and 3 Thompson's Lane Barry Landy It is widely assumed that the 80th Anniversary in 2017 is only of the premises in Thompson's Lane, which serves as both a student centre and an orthodox synagogue. In fact, it is also the 80th anniversary of CUJS (the Cambridge University Jewish Society) despite there being a history of Jewish Societies in Cambridge going back to at least to the 1880s.

Prior to 1937 there were actually four Jewish Societies: The Cambridge Hebrew Congregation, the Anglo-Jewish Association, The Solomon Schechter Society, and the Zionist Group.

Roughly these were for (respectively) synagogue organisation and meals, non-Zionist activities, intellectual activities, and the promotion of a Jewish State in Palestine.

In 1937, a leading member of these groups was Aubrey Eban, later known as Abba Eban, who became a member of the Israeli Cabinet and Israel's Ambassador to the United Nations. Maybe he was practising his political skills on a smaller stage, but he persuaded all four groups to wind themselves up in favour of a new organisation which would cover all the agendas, and which would be named the CUJS. When the CUJS opened in October 1937 it was no surprise that its first president was Aubrey Eban.

In the early days of 3TL (and its predecessors) it was thought necessary merely to provide kosher meals for Friday night and sometimes Shabbat lunch, as colleges provided all meals, so the highlight of the week, then as now, was the communal Friday evening service and meal where all like-minded Jewish undergrads met once a week.

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After the war there was a growing demand for weekday meals and so in 1947 Gordon Squires set up the Jewish Canteen or the Cambridge Jewish restaurant. This provided lunches from Monday to Thursday and on Shabbat, and Friday dinners. A cook was employed under the direction of two canteen managers, one of whom did menus and ordering (and theall-important lighting of the flame to ensure kashrut), while the other managed the finances.

These weekday meals continued at least until the 1990s. When the then cook resigned because of ill health the managers decided not to recruit a successor, possibly because they couldn't be bothered or possibly because of a fall in demand. Indeed, since then, despite some attempts by various student chaplains, weekday meals have never featured prominently.

When I arrived in Cambridge in 1956 the weekday lunch at 3TL was the focal point of Jewish life. Students of all degrees of frumness would eat there (that year the average attendance at lunches was 35, possibly an all time high) and was a highly social occasion. I would come hot-foot from a 12 o'clock lecture for lunch, and as often as not, find three others (all male of course) with whom to play bridge in the afternoon.

This was not necessarily good for my studies!

Friday evenings were very popular, and attendance in the first term was never below 100 and often well above that. Students of all stripes came and loud arguments were frequent. It has to be remembered that in those far off days students had to be back in college at the latest by 11pm when the gates were locked. After that hour the only ways in were by ringing a bell (a problem on Friday evening) and incurring both a fine and a lecture from one's tutor, or by climbing in, often over dangerous revolving spikes. Consequently, the meal was early and served efficiently. The Friday evening service was at 6.00 pm in summer and winter (with the approval of the Bet Din), dinner at 7.00 pm, guest speaker’s talk at 8.30 after which we left for coffee in someone's room: totally different from today's arrangements.

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Until his death in 1940 the "grand old man" of Cambridge Jewish Life was Herbert Loewe. He lived in Chesterton Hall Crescent not far from the shul and regularly hosted a large number of students for tea and Mishnah on Shabbat afternoon. Later his son Raphael did the same and was Senior Treasurer when I arrived.

I graduated in 1959 and stayed to do research, moving serendipitously into the brand-new field of Computing, working in the Mathematical Laboratory (later renamed the Computer Laboratory) writing operating systems. Not long after I got my MA I was surprised and quite shocked to be approached by Dr Gordon Squires (the Senior Treasurer) and Dr David Tabor (who had also been Senior Treasurer) and told it was my turn to fill the post. Apparently (as has happened to Senior Treasurers frequently) one day Gordon found that he had to repair a toiler in 3TL and a student walked in and accused him of being the plumber. He felt this was an affront to the dignity of a Fellow of Trinity and decided to resign. Which was how I came by the job!

What has changed since I came up in 1956?

Obviously a great deal. I alluded to gate hours earlier; college gates closed at 11pm and reopened at 6.00 am, and you were supposed to be in college between those hours. Every staircase had a "bedder" whose job was to make the beds and clean, and, by the way, to report any student who was not present. To have permission to be absent it was necessary to get an exeat from one's tutor. It was required (and still is formally speaking) to "keep nights", that is to be in residence for 8 weeks each term. Too many exeats and you had to stay after term ended to make up the number.

Only 10% of all University students were female: trains arriving on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning from London were known as the "popsy express" (a dreadfully sexist term); the tiny ladies’ gallery in 3TL was more than adequate to house the 1 to 3 women present.

Undergraduates wore gowns in the evenings outside college, and proctors patrolled the streets with their fearsome "bulldogs" (actually college porters who were fleet of foot) looking for students committing Page 10

misdemeanours. When caught you gave your name and college and were duly summoned to report to the proctor. Usually you were fined 1/3 pound (6 shillings and 8 pence in old money!) and sent on your way. The story goes that the renowned cricketer "Lord" Ted Dexter was once driving down Jesus Lane when he spotted a bulldog, lost control, and drove into the wall of Sidney Sussex College, narrowly missing the bulldog. When he got his breath back the bulldog approached the car and automatically said "Name and College, Sir".

The pattern of lectures for 8 weeks and supervisions in your various subjects has not changed however, though the range of subjects has varied somewhat. The pastoral side of college life has vastly improved however.

In 1956, all colleges were single sex: three (Girton, Newnham, and the then very new New Hall later renamed Murray Edwards) were for women and the rest for men. A long campaign to admit more women started in the 60s. Darwin, founded in 1964 and mixed from the outset, was the first, but it took until 1972 for any previously all-male colleges to become mixed. When I joined Fitzwilliam in 1973 the argument was in full swing, and it took until 1979 to win the argument. Arguably, that is the single biggest change to University life in the post-War years.

The CUJS has, of course, benefited from this as well. Many years ago we had to commission an "extension" to the gallery in response to pressure on the space available to women, as well as pressure for a more egalitarian arrangement. This led to the creation of a flexible mechitzah which currently divides the shul into roughly equal halves side by side.

In my early years in Cambridge there was a lot of animosity between "townies" and "gownies". This frequently came to a head on 5 November (Guy Fawkes' Night) when what can only be described as a near riot would occur on the Market Square with many fireworks flying in all directions. On at least one occasion, when a window was accidentally left open, a randomly thrown rocket landed by chance in a student’s bedroom. After a particularly wild night in the 50s the Page 11

proctors clamped down. I might add that similar things also happened in London.

There were a lot more cinemas and theatres, but the cinemas only had one screen, so the effect was quite similar to today's multiplexes.

The open question: is it really "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose", or are there real differences. I would single out two major changes: the move to equality in education and the dropping of the gate hours. They have had massive effects on student life. The rest is probably "life goes on".

Life for committed Jewish students has also improved a great deal.

When I arrived at Jesus College the best they could offer was what they called vegetarian food, but which turned out to mean that the soups (meaty!) and vegetables (surprisingly also meaty) were unaltered and the main course was replaced by eggs. After a week of leaving hall to go back to my room (which had a single gas burner) to make myself something to eat, I talked to my tutor and was excused hall. Nowadays there is a kosher kitchen in Jesus shared by like-minded students who can prepare their own food.

Arrangements for examinations are essentially unchanged so that there is always the risk of exams being set on Shabbat or Yomtov. The rules for students affected by this have not changed, but owing to an initiative in 1990 by the person in charge of examinations (not himself Jewish) many fewer examinations are routinely set on Saturday. In just one year, this change reduced the numbers affected by 75%.

The increasingly equal balance of the sexes has resulted in more of the routine aspects of student life becoming more gender balanced.

Women have been presidents of the Cambridge Union and the CUJS. I think some subtle changes have taken place to make the general feeling less one of a superannuated boys' school, though some unfortunate aspects of that kind of rĂŠgime persist in college drinking clubs and maybe elsewhere.

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I have of course known many people who have passed through the Cambridge Jewish scene to make their names known in later life.

Perhaps the most famous are Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who was an undergraduate and postgraduate at Caius College, Michael (Lord) Howard who became leader of the Conservative Party (and is my cousin), and (Lord) Leon Brittan. All of them were active members of the CUJS. Leon’s father died when he was an undergraduate and we had a regular weekday morning minyan. This was at 8.00 am in Leon’s room in Trinity College as it was warmer than 3TL. One of my jobs as Gabbai was to walk round the various rooms of Jewish students in Johns and Trinity to wake them in time for the minyan.

Of the generation above me, I have mentioned Gordon Squires who was at Cambridge 10 years earlier than me. He became a Fellow at Trinity (in Theoretical Physics) and was a leading member of the community. When I was an undergraduate Leon Mestel was one of the lecturers in Mathematics.

As an undergrad through friends of friends I mixed with some of the footlight crowd, among them David Frost and Peter Cook (about which there is a funny story). Other people in that crowd were Eleanor Bron, whose elder brother was a contemporary of mine at school, and Jonathan Miller.

The funny story: in about 1958 CUJS organised a dinner-dance in London to raise money for the CUJS (little changes!) and booked Peter Cook for a cabaret. Not long before the event he contacted us to say that he couldn’t make it but a friend of his could, and he promised that it would be a successful evening. The friend was the then little known David Frost. He was excellent and the evening a great success.

A comment about computers then and now, which also touches on my professional life. After getting a Maths degree I moved into Physics.

When I first needed to do a serious calculation for which log tables were no good, I was directed to the Mathematical Laboratory. By one of the coincidences of which the Universe seems to be built the Mathematical Laboratory was also founded in 1937 as a place where Page 13

there was a room full of mechanical or electric calculators, and people who could advise on using them.

I spent three exhausting days working out some numbers for my problem, and decided that if there was any better way, I would use it. I then took a course in the use of a computer. The computer in question was housed within a large room and occupied a space at least equal to two of today’s student rooms. The course taught me how to program in a numeric machine code. I was hooked! I spent a lot of hours working out much more complicated calculations in physics (and some spare time solving some mathematical puzzles). At the first opportunity I went to the Director of the Laboratory and asked if there was a job for me. "Come back in October" he said, and so I started a long career writing operating systems. It is a complete contrast to today where everyone owns at least one, and often several computers, which also control everything from cars to washing machines.

Life as a Jew in Cambridge has also changed, perhaps most obviously in one’s Jewishness being less concealed. When I was an undergraduate it was extremely rare to see a student walking around wearing a kippah (and indeed, technically, it was against regulations to wear a head covering when wearing a gown in the evenings). We had a very active CUJS and a separate Israel Society and were happy that this was widely known. There was no problem in scheduling supervisions to avoid Shabbat and to make arrangements for exams and graduation so from a formal point of view no obstacles were placed in the way of Jewish students. It is however striking that in the last decade we have had two Torah processions through the streets of Cambridge and no one was concerned that there might by any sort of backlash. So maybe, as a group, we are more open about our Jewishness.

A final thing that has changed is the Rabbinical presence. Since 1995 or 96 we have had a Chaplain for the Jewish students, provided by the University Jewish Chaplaincy Board, and more recently also a Chabad Rabbi who also is a chaplain to the Jewish students, so whereas in 1956 we were on our own when it came to making arrangements for food and education, in 2017 the students have a lot of help.

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So a lot has changed in the 80 years since the student centre and synagogue at 3 Thompson’s Lane was built, and I'm sure a lot more will change in the coming years.

My side of the Mechitza Ros Landy Thinking of the women of the Shul made me realise how much the demographic has changed over the decades since I first came here.

When I was newly married, I was often the only woman in the ladies’ gallery, which is the raised step area now occupied by Sefarim. In those days there were no books there and instead there were two rows of seats. The men students would come at the end of Shul to the edge of the gallery and queue up to say "good Shabbos" to me. Occasionally, if I were lucky, there would be one other woman, Rosemary Nabarro, and the men would line up at the end to wish both of us a good Shabbos.

Why the dearth of ladies?

This was because in the 1960s there were only two colleges for women, Girton and Newnham. All the rest were for men.

Eventually there was one extra college for women, New Hall (now called Murray Edwards). Later there was a movement in the men’s colleges to admit women, which did happen over time. This had a knock-on effect in Shul and gradually there were more and more girls.

At the same time, young families were coming and younger children were frequenting the place. This brings us up to the present day when the ladies’ gallery is no longer used as such: it would indeed be far too small. Instead, we have a Mechitza down the middle of the Shul which makes a clear divide but at the same time lets the women get a good view of what's going on.

The Mechitza itself caused uproar when it first appeared. The Cambridge Jewish Residents’ Association (traditional but not frum) Page 15

insisted that Barry ask the Chief Rabbi about it. The residents thought it was too fierce a divider. The response that Barry got was that the screen should be three and a half feet high of opaque material and some sort of lattice above that height. This was actually more than the residents wanted and some backed off in a huff.

The Mechitza caused one other incident in the era when some frum girls put a sheet of semi opaque material over the lattice work so that the view from one side to the other would be blocked. This was done for weekday Minyanim. There were those who felt that this was undemocratic and pulled the material aside.

Then there were the scurrilous tales‌ the woman who sang loudly the opening note of any liturgical tune so that her husband, davening for the community, could pick up the right note and sing from there.

This very same lady used to breast feed her infants in Shul. The men complained that they could not concentrate on the davening as they could hear the infant feeding!

On the ladies’ side we have ladies in big hats, ladies in sheitels, ladies with no hats, ladies who come to chat, and ladies who want to daven.

And on weekdays, even ladies in Tefilin. The ladies’ section accommodates them all.

From all of this you can see that we are a very normal functioning community on my side of the Mechitza, with variety of purpose and variation in approach. The main attribute is that it is a gathering place for women and girls. I wonder if nowadays it might be called a "safe space"?

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Questions and answers with the Chief Rabbi The Chief Rabbi at Thompson’s Lane 31st October, 2017 Jane Liddell-King As a man in a position of conspicuous power and influence, the Chief Rabbi proved reassuringly thoughtful, attentive and willing to modify if not modernise Orthodoxy. He warmly praised the care and hospitality shown to Jewish students at Cambridge, his daughter having been one.

Facing questions from members of an audience of 25 people gathered at Thompsons Lane, he addressed matters including • • • •

•

The difficulty of conversion on the one hand, but the need for the Beth Din to set standards that will be recognised worldwide on the other The education and emergent role of women in the community, and the need to provide girls and women with the same education as boys and men The case of Rabbi Dweck The selection of Chief Rabbis (from Rabbi Aaron Hart in 1704 there have only been 13, or less depending on how you identify the Chief Rabbi). Rabbi Mirvis believed a wider selection process was needed, but that a full one person one vote wasn't sensible A discussion over whether people should leave during yizkor.

Rabbi Mirvis talked about how at Finchley United Synagogue he'd tried to encourage people to remain, including the introduction of a new prayer for those who remained who have not lost parents. He undertook to give the matter further thought

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Troubled by the observance of Simchat Torah in some synagogues, responded by firmly discouraging drunkenness. He talked about how he created the Simchat Torah that he wanted in his own home. This was so successful that he recreated it in the Finchley United Synagogue.

The Chief Rabbi is keenly aware of the challenges facing Orthodox Jews in 5778. He was particularly insistent that everyone should be welcomed when they entered a synagogue and enabled to feel at home.

He added that "the way in which the residents work with the students is a model for others to follow"; and "the fact that the community have given such value to the Jewish world is very much a tribute to them".

In response to an invitation to provide his thoughts on the occasion of the Cambridge Synagogue's 80th anniversary falling on the previous Shabbat, Rabbi Mirvis referred to the Ethics of the Fathers and drew an analogy with its reference to the ages of man ... the attainment of the age of 80 by reason of exceptional strength.

He went on to congratulate the community for, over the years, "having many outstanding characters, amazing people, and families whose hospitality is legendary".

Finally, using the reference in Psalms to "80" being "strength", the Chief Rabbi gave the community a blessing on its 80th anniversary: "May you go from strength to added strength" Page 18

Celebrating 80 Jane Liddell-King There are simchot and then there are simchot. On 19th November, some 100 people from across the communities and generations gathered in Thompson’s Lane Synagogue and partied. Unforgettably.

They had come not only to celebrate a thriving Synagogue but also to thank its two leading lights, Rosalind and Barry Landy, for their enormous contribution made to its well-being over more than 50 years.

Barry came as an undergraduate in 1956 and married Rosalind in 1961.

Speaking to the gathering, Rosalind Landy observed that not only had guests made the journey from Israel, but also from as far as St John’s College, just across the road. She warmly thanked all those who had made the occasion memorable and especially mentioned Marlene Lask, whose memories go back to 1937 when the Synagogue was built. "There are", she said, "plans to rebuild." She shared vivid memories of a young Michael Harris who read Philosophy at Cambridge and whose daughter recently graduated in Medicine.

Responding warmly, Rabbi Harris outlined the synagogue’s history before recalling highlights from his own student days including being instructed by Professor Stefan Reif in the art of making a ring in a very small space. He remembered the synagogue as an inclusive place offering a wealth of fulfilling experiences. He Page 19

remembered the Landy’s legendary hospitality as well as their strong bond with Israel, and remembered Rosalind being one of the first women to say Kaddish in the shul. As a couple they have dedicated themselves to the life of the synagogue. He spoke of their age as a time of strength and wished them good health and blessing. On behalf of the synagogue, he presented them with an inscribed silver becha.

Among the guests were Michael Loewe, who added his own vivid account of Jewish life in Cambridge.

Pauline and Jules Goldwater came to Cambridge in 1929 and started a ladies’ dress shop and gentlemen’s outfitters in Fitzroy Street. Born in 1936, their daughter Marlene grew up in the synagogue which she attended from the age of one. She remembers three other families who were then residents: Dr & Mrs Harris, Dr & Mrs Greenberg, Dr & Mrs Richards. During the War, the Jewish population swelled to include evacuees so that additional accommodation had to be found for the High Holydays. Marlene’s own children, Alison and David, were also raised in the synagogue.

Marlene met her husband, Austin, at a Jewish dance in London. They married in October 1961 and decided to live in Cambridge. Austin opened an optician’s practice which is now owned by one of the couple’s daughters. Austin was an active member of the synagogue and at onetime Chairman of the Chevra Kadisha.

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It was he who negotiated for a second burial plot at the Newmarket Road Cemetery. Marlene herself served on the committee of the original Ladies’ Guild which organised social evenings and an annual dance. During the War, the residents entertained servicemen and ran a club at the corner of Glisson Road and Hills Road.

Among the younger members present, Dalia, reading for a Master’s degree, said: "it’s great to see the different generations gathered together. I’ll always remember the warmth of the community. For me, Thompson’s Lane has been a second home."

Sholom Bleehen, an emeritus Professor of Dermatology, came up to Trinity in 1954 and still remembers the biting cold inside the Shul. As secretary, it fell to him to arrange for the boiler to be turned on and to ensure food was delivered on time. Some 30 students gathered regularly to be taught at the Cheder and he clearly remembers John Rayner, David Tabor, Dr Teicher, and Norman Solomons. "We had an intense intellectual life" he said, recollecting impromptu shiurim held on Shabbat.

Perhaps Professor Stefan Reif spoke for the more longstanding members of the Synagogue when he said simply "It has been my life. When we came here, our children were age 4 and 3. Now they are in their 50s."

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It was left to the Chairman, Jonathan Allin, who together with his wife, Lauren, has shouldered much of the organisation of this remarkable event, to voice the feelings of the assembled company: "It’s been a wonderful occasion. We’ve come together from different strands of the Cambridge Jewish community: a particularly welcoming community, one that's like no other, for this event which celebrates 80 years of the life of Thompson’s Lane, and celebrates the Landys who are its bedrock."

Yizkor-gate Rabbi Reuven Leigh As many of you will be aware there is a long-standing broiges in our community with regards to the question of whether those with parents still alive should be permitted to leave the shul during Yizkor. Although the issue remains dormant most of the time, on the four occasions in the year when Yizkor is recited, old tensions often resurface. So much so, that on a recent visit by the Chief Rabbi to Cambridge the issue was raised, and he was encouraged to make use of his office to make it socially unacceptable for those riddled with superstition (I’m really interested in the relationship between superstition and belief or faith) to leave during the Yizkor service.

For a community that rightly prides itself on its inclusivity and broad tolerance of religious views and practice, it always surprises me how this issue in particular should create so much friction. Even though I have been described as being of an evangelical bent, I would never dream of encouraging others to leave during Yizkor as I do, and consider that the two customs - staying and leaving - have their own historical validity.

When it comes to issues of death and mourning, emotions inevitably run very deep and it is very important therefore, in my view, that neither remainers nor leavers should be made to feel uncomfortable in shul. I sincerely believe that both practices are rooted in a deep concern for the honour of the living and the dead, and while we can Page 22

disagree on the correct approach, we should always respect each other’s integrity.

On a lighter note, I think there might be a connection between Yizkor and Chanukah. Although the practice of saying Yizkor for one’s relatives at fixed times in the calendar is roughly only five hundred years old, it is possible that the earliest reference to sayings prayers on behalf of the deceased can be found in the second book of Maccabees. There it states, that when "gathering up the bodies of the fallen [to] bring them back to lie with their relatives in the graves of their forefathers" (II Macc. 12:39), Yehudah Maccabee together with his cohort offered prayers and Temple sacrifices on behalf of their fallen comrades "that they might be set free from their sins" (Ibid, 12:45.)

It would seem that "superstition" is not the sole preserve of us leavers.

Spontaneous acts of remarkable kindness Jane Liddell-King With Israel under literal and political fire and a consequent undercurrent of antiSemitism threatening to erupt, as the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration approaches, I find consolation in three remarkable stories I found in the Dodecanese last summer. On Rhodes I stayed a stone's throw from the synagogue, Page 23

Kahal Shalom, which dates back to 1577 and is the only one of six to have survived the Nazi invasion. One morning I met Isaac Habib. As we talked sitting on the synagogue wall, a remarkable story unfolded. Born in the Belgian Congo, he was the son of two survivors of the Rhodes Jewish Community. When he was 35 he decided to learn Italian.

Delighted, his father had handed him a pouch of papers written in Italian: the story of his mother, Lucia Capelluto.

While Lucia had survived deportation to Auschwitz and Belsen and the loss of her mother and two sisters, she eventually reached Rome. At the time, a young woman called Lina Galassao Delfini was living in the city. A telegram arrived from a cousin in Rhodesia. Could Lina visit the sister of a friend who had survived two concentration camps?

And so Lina found Lucia. One icy night in 1946, she invited Lucia to tell her all that had happened after her deportation from Rhodes. "Emet," said Lucia, "Emet. Vero." As Lucia spoke, Lina wrote. The papers in the pouch which his father handed to Isaac told his mother’s story and prompted him to spend his summers in Rhodes talking.

Among Isaac’s War stories were two that have stayed with me. In May 1912, after 390 years of Turkish rule under the Ottoman Empire, Rhodes was taken over by the Italians and the Jews were granted the rights of those living in Italy. But the Jews and Turks had enjoyed friendship and close trading relationships for centuries. Arabic melodies had mingled with those chanted in the synagogues.

When, in July 1944, the Gestapo ordered the Jewish population to "register for temporary transportation to a small island nearby", a cruel Page 24

code for Auschwitz, Selahattin Ulkümen, the Turkish ambassador, immediately approached the German commanding officer to remind him of Turkey’s neutrality in the conflict. He asked for the release of Turkish Jews and their relatives. When the general retorted that all Jews were Jews and therefore bound for concentration camps, the ambassador told him that "under Turkish rule all citizens were equal.

We don’t differentiate between citizens who are Jewish, Christian, or Muslim. And I would advise my government that if you do not release the Jewish Turks, it will cause an international incident."

Thanks to the ambassador’s courage, some 40 Jews, not all of Turkish descent, were saved. The Germans retaliated by bombing the Turkish Embassy. Ulkümen’s heavily pregnant wife was severely injured. She lived just long enough to give birth to a son, Mehmet. Besides her, two employees died. Selahattin Ulkümen is remembered at Yad Vashem.

Clearly moved by this story Isaac paused.

Then he went on: the Turks soon realised that Rhodes was under threat. They understood how the Jews valued their Sifrei Torah, one of which was 600 years old. Seyh Suleyman Kaslioglu, the Grand Mufti of Rhodes, came to the Chief Rabbi and offered to hide the scrolls in his Mosque. In 1971, he said "One of the greatest moments of my life was when I was able to embrace the Torah and carry it and put it in the pulpit of the mosque because we knew that no German would ever think that the Sifrei Torah were preserved in the pulpit of the mosque."

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It turned out that the Grand Mufti’s father-in-law had been Jewish and, over the years, the Grand Mufti had met with the Grand Rabbi of Rhodes and other Jewish leaders.

"You never know," added Isaac, "what you will find out next".

In December, 1944, my father, serving in the British army, landed on the nearby island of Symi. His months there were a time of unexpected peace and reflection. I knew that no Jews had been allowed to settle on the island so visited with a certain scepticism. And at the memorial to those who had died in the War, I found this:

An unexpected story of courage and kindness.

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Belonging The story of the Jews 1492-1900 Professor Simon Goldhill, FBA, Mishkenot Sha’ananim Before I had set eyes on Simon Schama’s new book, Belonging, The Story of the Jews 1492-1900, my mother had told me that she would not read it until it came out in paperback. This was not a question of cost but of weight. “I just couldn’t hold it to read”, she said. I was, as sons are, rather sniffy. But my mother was, as mothers are, right. At nearly 800 pages, this is not a volume casually to glance at in the bath.

It is not so much a blockbuster as a doorstopper, and I did eventually regret deciding to take it with me to read on the plane as I flew to Israel. As the third-century BCE scholar, librarian and poet, Callimachus famously said, mega biblion mega kakon, “a big book is a big evil”.

Belonging is volume two of a projected trilogy bringing the story of the Jews from 1000 BCE to the present day, an ambitious project if ever there were one. 1492 takes us away from medieval Judaism through the Renaissance with the Venice Ghetto, through the political emancipation and Haskalah (Enlightenment), into the heady days of nineteenth-century Jewish scholarship, wealth, scientific contribution, and the rise of anti-Semitism as a political force in German-speaking countries and Eastern Europe, which will lead no doubt to the anticipated third volume’s central horror.

There is a great sweep to the narrative. Schama starts in Venice and then Spain and Portugal with the Spanish King’s expulsion of the Jews.

This leads to repeated tales of the attempts of Jews to integrate into the societies in which they find themselves, and equally repeated rejection of them by communities – with subsequent exile, travelling, or worse. As one would expect from Schama’s previous work, there is a strong focus on Dutch material. He has worked on Rembrandt and his first scholarly work was on the Netherlands in the 18th and 19th centuries and his best-regarded book is probably his study of the Dutch Culture in its so-called golden Age. Similarly, he has published a study of the Rothschilds and Israel, so he knows a good deal about the role of Page 27

major Jewish philanthropists. Also earlier, the court Jews who helped finance kingdoms and cure monarchs, often under hostile and brutal conditions. The title Belonging itself provides what intellectual argument there is in the book: how did Jews try to belong to where they lived? What did it mean to belong to a society? What did it mean to belong to the Jewish community? How do we belong to this history?

Yet the subtitle is probably a better guide to what there is in this mammoth read: stories. There is barely any coherent historical case argued, or integrated narrative provided. It is rather a collection of long, detailed, passionate, and often astonishing stories about individual Jews. There are some fabulous figures, for sure, fake prophets, financiers, female power-brokers, soldiers, sailors and politicians. Few readers will not learn a new cast of memorable characters. And as anyone who has heard Schama on television will know, he can tell a story. But the somewhat overheated, emphatic style of television presentation, along with an obsessive rehearsal of vivid details, palls over 800 pages (and, for me at least, palled long before the end). Like an overenthusiastic museum guide, Schama simply cannot resist adding what he knows and pointing out this and that and that again, even when it distracts from the story. An example.

By any reckoning, the philosopher Spinoza is a Super-Jew who deserves a big place in a history such as Schama’s. And we need to know Spinoza’s background in a Jewish education in the Netherlands to appreciate his renegade thinking. It helps thus to know something about his father, Michael, who was on the local shul board. Michael was an importer of dried fruit. Schama writes: “His father, Michael d’Espinosa, was a business man, an importer of dried fruit and nuts from Spain and Portugal: Malaga raisins, figs, Algarve almonds, and olive oil from further afield.” Do we really need to be given a stock list?

It will not help us appreciate Spinoza and the threat of his philosophy which is the topic of the chapter. Does “business man” add to the story? Are there importers who are not business men? When this style is multiplied many times a page, it is easy to see how the book got to be the size it is. It is not an easy book to read straight through. Perhaps it would be best appreciated if read one chapter each Shabbat afternoon over four months.

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The focus on individual Jews and their stories brings inevitable distortions. These are largely stories of remarkable, famous, or outstanding individuals, who by definition cannot give us access to the ordinary lives of ordinary Jews and how these changed over the centuries or differed from community to community. It is not really a story of the Jews. As such, it is what historians would call deeply oldfashioned “great man” history: there is no attempt to tell the tale of the massed ranks of immigrants into the East End, or the shtetl life of the other East, let alone provide any explanations for the dynamics of belonging and rejection he traces. The founding question of history – it is Herodotus in the fifth century BCE who sets the agenda – is “what is the cause that led the Greeks and Persians to fight?”: but Schama asks and answers no such questions. There is a difference between a story and a history: Schama is clear that he is here on the side of a story.

Since we are in Cambridge, I can offer one last gripe. One important line of remarkable Jews is strikingly underrepresented in Schama’s cast: scholars. After Spinoza, we get no more than bare references to a host of thinkers and writers. In 19th-century Germany, for example, one of the most telling narratives is that of the Jews who joined the universities and rose to positions of eminence in the sciences, humanities, and other fields. Judaism itself became a new object of study too. Scholarship and education was one of the most contested arenas of belonging and rejection (and still is: in current arguments about access to universities it is often forgotten that American universities had Jewish quotas into the 1970s). Sigmund Freud, a Jew who barely enters this book (born in 1856, but no doubt reserved for the twentieth-century volume), became a psychologist because he was prevented as a Jew from entering his preferred field of medicine – and went on to reject the Judaism his father had stood for and which had stigmatized his own rise. Freud’s wife, the Shabbat after his death, lit Shabbat candles, something she had been prevented from doing throughout their married life. But that is another story. Schama follows the money and the glamour: but to understand the Jewish story, you also need to understand the yidischer kopf. Anti-semites often attacked Jews for being too clever. But succeeding in intellectual and Page 29

educational matters was a constant route of success for the Jews,, institutionalized from the 19th century onwards through engagement in the educational establishments of Western communities – something Schama himself embodies.

Neither Einstein, to take one iconic smart Jew of the early twentieth century, nor Kafka, to take another sort of success, could have been possible without these 19th-century pioneers in Jewish intellectual life.

Belonging will no doubt sell many copies, and many barmitzvah boys will put it on the shelf barely opened. There are some fabulous stories in it, and the richness and bizarreness of Jewish lives over the centuries vividly on display. But I remained disappointed and frustrated as well as intrigued and astonished: too much story and not enough argument; too much detail and not enough insight; too many heroes and not enough framework.

But at least no one will complain that the portions are too small.

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The Woolf Institute Dr Emma Harris (eth22@cam.ac.uk), Director of Studies, Woolf Institute Greater understanding and respect for one another are vital in building trust and cooperation, and overcoming ignorance and intolerance (including Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Christian prejudice). It is those changes in attitudes and behaviour brought on through education, training and research that can contribute to advancing the greater public good.

The Woolf Institute is an academic, charitable institution that strives to improve relations between Jews, Christians and Muslims through education, research and public education. Since its foundation in Cambridge in 1998, the Woolf Institute has established a successful multi-disciplinary track record through academic research, face-to-face and online teaching, and innovative public outreach programmes.

During the summer of 2017, the Woolf Institute moved into its permanent new home in the grounds of Westminster College (Madingley Road). In the new building, we have a dedicated library, media centre, research hub, seminar rooms, conference and lecture facilities, a quiet space and student accommodation. Our new home gives us to opportunity to broaden the experience of students and early career research staff through participation (and organisation) in conferences, workshops, symposia, and other cultural activities.

As Director of Studies, I am involved in strategic and operational plans for teaching at the Institute. My focus has become increasingly centred on providing interfaith studies to individuals worldwide, be it through a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), face-to-face in a classroom setting or context-based learning in the workplace. We hope that these opportunities contribute to the development and training of future generations of leaders in scholarship, research, the learned professions, the ministry, the public sector, business and innovation.

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My aim is to develop and expand our range of online courses (utilising the new media centre) and collaborate with institutions which value, and contribute to promoting, tolerance, understanding and peace. I feel passionately that, by opening safe channels of discussion and debate with individuals worldwide of all faiths and none and from various backgrounds, we can generate a united voice of reason not conflict. These individuals will have the knowledge to understand similarities, appreciate differences and have the ability to impart valuable information to their colleagues, communities, friends and neighbours. Many participants from across Europe and around the world – including Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom, as well as Australia, Chile, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Qatar, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Turkey, the UAE and the United States to name but a few – have engaged with our online courses.

Photo credit: Claire Curran The courses include Bridging the Great Divide: the Jewish-Muslim Encounter, which the Institute offers in partnership with the School of International Service at the American University in Washington.

Celebrating its 6th anniversary in 2018, this 15-week online course Page 32

explores the history, culture and theology of Muslims and Jews, reflecting both on similarities and differences as well as discussing the major challenges. Another course offered is Religion is…, a course created by two of our PhD scholars to provide participants with an understanding of the beliefs that underpin the Abrahamic religions.

These courses and others foster the importance of building bridges in various contexts.

I work closely with Dr Ed Kessler, Founder Director of the Woolf Institute, and colleagues from the Cambridge Theological Federation (of which the Institute is a member) to provide interfaith social and ecclesial context-based placements and to teach students about Judaism and Jewish-Christian-Muslim Relations. For January 2018, we are organising a one-day interfaith conference for Ordinands in the Cambridge Theological Federation which will be an opportunity to consider the relationship between Christianity and Judaism.

The Woolf Institute is a place where everyone is welcome. Contact us if you would like to engage in independent research in the Library, participate on a course or join us for an event or two in 2018 and:

• • •

•

Watch various short films focusing on Muslim-JewishChristian Relations (February 2018); Hear the Pontanima Interreligious Choir from BosniaHerzegovina (3 March 2018); Listen Lord Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College speak on ‘The importance of interfaith in terms of social justice’ (2 May 2018); Attend a concert based on the musical encounters between Jewish and Muslim neighbours in Aleppo and Baghdad (May 2018).

Woolf Institute website: http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk

For full event listings: http://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events

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Anne Summers: Christian and Jewish Women in Britain, 18801940, Living with Difference Jane Liddell-King Should you believe the terms "networking", "teamwork", "childcentred education" and "inter-faith" to be today's freshly minted buzz words, a new book by Dr Anne Summers, Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, might change your mind. She shows that these experiences have been with us for more than a century. Working in Geneva on the achievement of Victorian reformer, Josephine Butler, Dr Summers came across this electrifying note: "I have written to Madam Dreyfus on behalf of a number of English women and myself." Prompted to investigate other letters written to Lucie Dreyfus, she was particularly interested in one from a group of Manchester based women. From the 1860s, these enterprising women, Jews and Christians, had formed effective charitable and subsequently, political, networks.

Unsurprisingly, they came from the middle and upper classes: those who had time and money to invest in attempting to improve the lives of the poor and needy. Responding to social inequality, assisting newborn mothers to cope, alerting authorities to the absence of sanitation raised the political consciousness of these women. They campaigned for universal suffrage.

The crucial factor in the fight for gender equality was to enable girls to enjoy the same educational opportunities as boys. And so pressure groups were formed. Fears that the Christian women would attempt to convert their Jewish colleagues proved largely unfounded and, if individuals vented anti-Semitic views, these were few and far between.

The chapters on individual activists such as Netta Montagu, Lily Montagu, and Rebecca Sieff are particularly absorbing. Together with committed Christian, Charlotte Mason, Netta significantly influenced Page 34

"early years" education, in particular empowering parents to facilitate their children’s education at home.

Perhaps the following extended extract indicates both the book's strengths: dogged sleuthing resulting in irresistible stories, and the challenges of a book intended for academics: a sometimes dauntingly detailed assemblage of data which demands the reader's wholehearted attention.

The best-remembered collaboration between Christians and Jews over refugee relief in which women activists played key roles, concerns the rescue of children from the Nazi regime. The earliest suggestion of focusing on the child victims of Nazism appears to have come from Helen Bentwich née Franklin, a niece (by marriage) of both Netta Franklin and Herbert Samuel. Her husband, Norman Bentwich, who had been the first Attorney-General of Mandate Palestine while her uncle was its first High Commissioner, was from 1933 to 1935 Director of the League of Nations High Commission for Refugees from Germany. Vera Fast’s research in the archive of Bishop Bell reveals that in the autumn of 1933 Helen brought the likely fate of ‘non-Aryan’ Christians to the Bishop’s attention, and proposed that the well-established Save the Children Fund be encouraged to assist the children of such families. She added that her name should not be mentioned in any appeal for funds since 'I am both Jewish and a known Socialist and Pacifist.'

After the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 bore out her predictions, Gladys Skelton and Frances Bendit established a subcommittee of Save the Children known as the Inter-Aid Committee for Children from Germany. It was chaired by Wyndham Deedes, who had formed close ties with the Bentwiches while serving in the Palestine administration; there may have been a further Bentwich connection in that Gladys Skelton had been a Girton contemporary of Norman Bentwich’s sister, Rosalind, who died in 1922.

By the end of 1938, Inter-Aid had helped 471 children to be placed in schools in England. Jewish and ‘non-Aryan’ Christian children were helped in almost equal numbers, and much of the funding came from the Jewish community, including Rebecca Sieff’s Women’s Appeal Committee.

Dr Summers concludes her book with a tribute to her mother, Rachel Bernstein, whose family came to the UK from Vilna in the 1890s. Like many of their contemporaries, Rachel's mother was illiterate and her Page 35

father steeped in religious works. Nevertheless, Rachel won a scholarship which enabled her to enjoy two extra years of schooling and to savour English Literature, Shakespeare, in particular.

Touchingly, Dr Summers dedicates this illuminating book to her History teacher, Elaine Kaye, who was also my own.

Some thoughts at the Centenary of the Balfour Declaration Stefan C. Reif Do you remember reading Animal Farm? George Orwell’s short but brilliant satire of “idealism betrayed by power and corruption” describes how the new animal regime at the farm establishes all manner of slogans, such as “Four legs good, two legs bad”, and “If Napoleon [the pigs’ leader] says it, it must be right”. It also prescribes its new set of commandments, including “all animals are equal”, soon to be adjusted by the addition of “but some animals are more equal than others”. The satire could just as well be applied to all forms of totalitarian regime or despotic behaviour.

Many of today’s western media masquerade under the notions of freedom, liberalism, and equality but are highly prone to the promotion of slogans and the imposition of the kind of commandments that suit nothing more their own preconceived ideology. They see only one side of certain problems and are committed to political correctness, expressing suspicion of any lack of diversity. East good, west bad; Europe and USA bullies, others victims; Jews and Christians always to be criticised, Islam only to be admired; European and American patriots are racists; third world nationalists are freedom fighters. As with the regime at Animal Farm, many commentators do not permit the facts to interfere with the exclusive set of principles and agenda that they allow in accordance with their warped sets of values.

Any opinions that are at odds with these tendentious values, including free speech by any conservative-minded opponents, are decried as Page 36

undemocratic and unacceptable to those who see themselves as the only truly enlightened and fair-minded individuals and groups. College students of this genre claim that they are so upset by unacceptable views that they require the protection of what amounts to censorship.

So it can be stated by those who have never been treated at an Israeli hospital, eaten in a restaurant in Israel, travelled on a bus or train between Haifa, Tel Aviv, and Jerusalem, or had a humus in Abu Ghosh, that Israel is an apartheid state. For them it is self-evident: AntiZionism, good; Zionism bad. By demonstrating what have been called by sometime “prisoner of Zion” in Soviet Russia, Anatole Sharansky, the three “d”s – delegitimization, demonization, and double standards – they reveal not only a bigoted definition of Zionism but also a degree of anti-Semitism underlying it. There seems to be no point in citing to such media bigots the fact (among numerous examples) that Israel has provided medical assistance to thousands of victims of the Syrian civil war, from all sides of the religious, military, and political spectrum.

Effectively, they are saying: Please don’t confuse us with the facts; we know we are right.

Some such ideological dictators tell us that the Balfour Declaration created Zionism and led to the major influx of Jews, and only Jews, into what became mandatory Palestine. They describe this act as the dispossession of the Palestinian Arabs and the theft of their country.

For them, the behaviour of Lord Arthur James Balfour and the British Cabinet of 1917 is to be explained as imperialist, colonialist, and militaristic and they cite one of the current leaders of Fatah, Osama alQawasmi, who has described it as no less than “the most horrible crime in the history of mankind.”

Today’s anti-Zionist sloganists need some lessons in accurate history.

There was virtually never a period in the history of the past two thousand years when the land of Israel lacked a Jewish population. In Late Antiquity they, and indeed many Christians, lived and often thrived, in many of the cities. After the Islamic occupation of 634-8, Jews continued to live in their homeland, although with different groups of Arabs often fighting each other, their presence there became Page 37

something of a challenge. They nevertheless developed their own religious culture, often at odds with the more powerful and affluent Jewish settlements of Babylonia.

Waves of Jewish immigration to the Holy Land (aliyot) were a regular feature of medieval history. Groups of Karaite Jews in the ninth and tenth centuries promoted Hebrew language, Bible study, and special prayers for recitation as they walked around the walls of Jerusalem.

Hundreds of Ashkenazi Jews settled in the major Jewish cities in the thirteenth century and brought with them religious ideas that had evolved in Franco-Germany. Many of the Sefardi families who had been expelled from Spain in 1492 eventually settled in Safed, Jerusalem, and Hebron in the sixteenth century and created dynamic centres of Jewish mystical thought and custom (kabbalah). Eastern European ḥassidim came in the early nineteenth century and suffered terrible deprivation for their ideological pains. Over 150 years ago, long before Balfour, a British report indicated that there were more Jews in Jerusalem than the combined number of its Christian and Muslim inhabitants.

When Balfour issued his declaration, there was no Palestinian state and the local Arabs saw themselves as part of the larger Syrian entity, with its capital in Damascus. The rulers of most of the Arab world were the Ottomans and neither the rulers nor their subjects were renowned for democracy, tolerance, or charity towards their fellows. For decades the

If Balfour, and its political consequences and ramifications, are invalid for the justification of the Jewish State, so too must they then undermine the raison-d’être of Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, all created as a result of similar considerations. only people who called themselves Palestinians were the Jews of Eretz Yisrael. The modern version of Zionism, as distinct from its medieval religious counterparts, developed important political and activist dimensions. Theodore Herzl is often seen as the champion of such a notion but he was by no means the only one, there having been earlier thinkers and settlers with similar ideas. Jews had suffered unconscionable atrocities in both the Christian and Muslim worlds, and Page 38

it was thought that establishing their own democratic state in their ancient homeland might put an end to anti-Semitism. They of course underestimated the degree to which an intense anti-Jewish animus can always find novel ways of hating Jews and fully justifying their prejudice.

Among the ideas that inspired the British, as well as the French and the Americans who followed them, were biblically-based Christian ideas about the ultimate fate of the Jewish people, the ambition to spread democratic values and systems, and the granting of self-determination to large groups of identifiable peoples, denied it until then. Such ideas lay behind the Versailles Conference of 1919, and had earlier had their effect on the contents of the Balfour Declaration. The notion of reestablishing a Jewish homeland in the territory most closely tied to the Jewish historical experience led to the declaration of the British mandate over Palestine at the San Remo conference of 1920 and its later ratification by the League of Nations.

The original intention was to include both sides of the Jordan but in 1922 some 77% of the relevant territory was excluded by the British from the provision dealing with Jewish settlement and given to the Hashemite sheikh, Abdullah ibn Hussein, as Arab Palestine, subsequently the kingdom of Transjordan. This was to ensure that both Arabs and Jews benefitted from the plans of the western nations who had triumphed in the First World War and defeated, among others, the Ottoman Turks.

If Balfour, and its political consequences and ramifications, are invalid for the justification of the Jewish State, so too must they then undermine the raison-d’être of Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, all created as a result of similar considerations.

There can be no argument that for the Jews, the developments in mandatory Palestine were of great value in building an infrastructure for the later establishment of Israel in 1948. But it is false to claim that the Arab population of that area knew only suffering as a result. The industrialization, the introduction of power stations and electricity, the Page 39

piping of water and the building of roads, in addition to improved medical and educational facilities, brought considerable advantage to them as well as to the Jews. A proof of this may be found in the fact that the Arab population of mandatory Palestine doubled in the twenty years after San Remo, mainly as a result of economic immigration from surrounding Arab countries. All this, while the British responded to Arab demands and violence by ultimately limiting Jewish immigration.

At least half of the 1.5 million Muslims who live today in Israel are the descendants of the immigrants from Arab countries. When asked in polls if they would prefer to be transferred to a projected state of Palestine or remain in Israel, a majority has always opted for the latter.

Has the Balfour declaration been a “horrible crime” for them?

One cannot, if one wishes to be taken seriously, cherry-pick one's history, one’s events, and one’s political history. If we take a long look at history, we must take account of Jewish, Christian, and Muslim movements and interests throughout the centuries, and not pay heed only to Islamic empires. If we restrict ourselves to the first decades of the twentieth century, we are surely obligated to evaluate equally, and comprehensively, what benefits as well as disadvantages occurred for Jews, Christians, and Muslims in each set of circumstances. Painful, even tragic, movements of population, and collateral injuries and deaths, occurred during the twentieth century in much greater number in areas such as Central Europe and the Indian sub-continent than they did in the Middle East. In those areas themselves, and with regard to the study of their histories, it is becoming more common for serious scholars to see positive results as well as negative ones and for populations to accept the reality of their situation and to build new, constructive, and productive lives. Those who welcomed the Balfour declaration did precisely that; those who opposed it are still harping on past events, and exaggerating their claimed disadvantage, instead of living with the present and planning for the future.

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The story of the readmission and its relevance to Anglo Jewry today Address to the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, Simchat Torah, 13 October 2017 Jonathan Djanogly I am generally wary of administering heavy political speeches at synagogue dinners – having said that, let me just say that I am a member of the Brexit Select Committee and will be happy to take questions on this or any other topic later on.

When I was considering a subject for this evening, I realised that one connection between this congregation and me is Oliver Cromwell. He is associated with the Jewish readmission in 1656 and the foundation of this congregation. He was also the MP for Huntingdon, which is currently my Parliamentary seat.

For those history buffs amongst you, the term “readmission” is a bit of a misnomer as there was a Jewish presence and possibly a community in England before 1656. One could therefore say “recognition” rather than “readmission” – but even here it’s arguable that official recognition was not given until after the restoration of Charles II in 1660. However, what is certain is that during Cromwell’s time Jewish people settled here as Jews and not Murranos or Conversos and they also established an official burial ground and congregation by 1657. So I shall keep on using the term “readmission”.

What we need to realise however is that the “readmission” did not just happen. It was activated by a complicated set of social, political, religious, and economic circumstances that were unique to those times, for Jews as for the English – who both lived in an age of huge upheaval.

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It seems unlikely that Cromwell formally readmitted the Jews. On 1st April, 1656, the final day of the Whitehall Conference, Henry Jessey noted, “no absolute answer is yet returned from Cromwell”.

Significantly however, the Whitehall Conference acknowledged that “there is no Law that forbids the Jews return into England.” (A Narrative of the late Proceeds at Whitehall. London 1656, p.10, also David S. Katz "Philosemitism and the Readmission of the Jews in England 1603-1655".

Nevertheless, following the trial of Antonio Rodrigues Robles (and the exposure of other mainly very rich and well-connected Sephardi Jews thought to have been Catholics), Anglo-Jews lived openly in London. By the time of Cromwell’s death, Jews were firmly established in England although there was an ongoing argument as to their right to remain. Following the Restoration, an attempt from City circles to have them expelled was deflected. In 1664, 1674, and 1685, confirmation of their status was given. JL-K This was brought home to me by a strange story. A delegation of Amsterdam’s Jews visited Huntingdon in 1656 to inquire about Cromwell’s family history, apparently looking to discover messianic A Narrative of the late Proceeds at Whitehall. London 1656, p.10. traits in their potential redeemer. To me this sounds bizarre. Of course, What is important about the Whitehall Conference is its Jews don’t believe in saints1 or normally go around provincial England acknowledgement “there no Law thatJewish forbids the Jews looking for messiahs2.that Indeed, untilisthen the only history I knew return into England.” was See 400 David S. earlier Katz: Philosemitism and the attached to Huntingdon years when the locals burnt Readmission of the Jews in England 1603-1655 the Huntingdon synagogue in 1289. But it didn’t stop there. Again, when Menasseh ben Israel came over from Amsterdam and met Cromwell for the first time just before Rosh Hashanah 1655, he apparently manhandled the great man to see if he was human. A contemporary report said Menasseh Ben Israel “kissed and touched [Cromwell’s] hands and then his whole body with the most exact care”.

In trying to understand this behaviour, we need to accept that the Jewish mentality of the 17th century was very different from today. To 1 2

See Louis Jacob’s book "Holy Living: Saints and Saintliness in Judaism", 1990) Though both Jews and Christians expected the Messiah to appear in 1656

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start with, there was a rapidly decreasing number of places Jews could live. The Inquisition, started in 1478 by Ferdinand and Isabella, had banned them from Spain and Portugal but also 90 German speaking cities had expelled them, and not only Catholic ones as Luther had come out viciously against Jews. Blood libels were common and conversion campaigns the norm. There were exceptions of course in Germany and the Holy Roman Empire and Holland. But readmission attempts in Sweden had failed. And then in Eastern Europe calamity struck with the Chmielnicki uprising of 1648 in which Cossacks brutally slaughtered some 30 per cent of the entire European Jewish population.

So European Jewry was traumatised, searching for protection and looking for answers to its suffering. In such times it is common for people of all faiths to look beyond the here and now to a better time for consolation and hope: superstition, millenarianism, messianism, and mysticism took root in the Jewish mainstream in a way that we would find difficult to comprehend today. However these ideas not only gave comfort to the Jews, they also tragically divided the Jews.

Very large numbers, including many prominent rabbis, followed the Cabbalist mystic Shabbetai Tzvi, who had declared himself the Messiah.

This proved to be a debacle for the Jewish people, albeit a self-made one.

At the same time, England was also deeply traumatised from the Civil War, only just ended. About five per cent of the population had been killed by fighting in the war but far more by disease. Families had been split between Parliament and the King and again millenarianism and messianism had taken root. Initial Protestant groups had split into a huge number of different denominations. From institutional Covenanter Calvinists through to Quakers, Anabaptists and Ranters.

Protestantism had seen the Bible translated into English and it was now read and being interpreted by people of all classes. The renewed emphasis on the Old Testament led many Puritans to a new understanding of Jews. There was clearly a convergence of thought and custom, which for Jews held the possible path towards a new place of safe harbour.

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For instance, in Menasseh ben Israel’s Petition of 1655 he explained his desire for resettlement partly in terms of the prophecy of Deuteronomy, that before the Messiah comes, Jews must be in all corners of the globe. This was a position widely held by many of Cromwell’s Puritan colleagues as the very clever Menasseh ben Israel would have realised. However, the underlying reason for the Puritan’s position would have been mainly related to winning the Jews over to Christianity, albeit through kindness.

Some Puritans learned Hebrew whilst others searched for the lost 10 tribes of Israel. One theory had it that one of these tribes were the native Indians of America, another the Irish people, another the people of China. Messianic fervour took root and 1656 was prophesied by some to be the year of “the fall of the Antichrist and the Jews conversion” preceding the destruction of the world and the return of the Messiah. Apparently thousands of pounds worth of buildings were burnt down by fanatics in anticipation of this great event.

So there was undoubtedly a coming together of religious thought which helped the readmission, but it's doubtful whether this in itself would ever have been enough to gain recognition in England.

The first readmission approach to the Parliamentary General, Lord Fairfax, had been made and was apparently favourably received, but shelved, as early as 1648. However, the main pitch was made when Menasseh ben Israel arrived with three rabbis in September 1655 and was very well received by Cromwell himself, as well as many philosemites in London.

I have mentioned Menasseh ben Israel’s petition and his focussing on religious similarities and the prevailing zeitgeist, but he also concentrated on finance. For instance, in a chapter called: “How profitable the Nation of the Jews are” he explained the Jewish talent for what he called “merchandicing” and how this could help the economies of those lands that protected Jews.

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This economic factor was not lost on Cromwell who was generally restructuring British foreign policy towards one based on trade. We need to remember that until the Republic, wars were started to support foreign relatives of the monarch as much as British trade interests. At the time Britain’s major trading competitor was Holland.

Whilst British policy varied from seeking alliances with the Dutch to fighting with them, no country was more carefully monitored or envied by the British. Holland was, of course, also the country where Charles II was biding his time to return to England.

Clearly, by admitting Dutch Jews to England, Cromwell saw the opportunity to transfer capital from Amsterdam to London. It is said that the first Jews brought one and a half million pounds into England which I understand to have a purchasing power of up to £50 billion today. They also transported with them a lot of valuable intelligence.

Cromwell was a man of great Puritan faith but he was also extremely practical.

However, there was also huge opposition from a major cross-section of English society to the Jews coming from abroad. The mainstream churches were opposed on religious grounds and traders complained that they would be hard done by. A lot of anti-Semitism was also raked up. Cromwell was accused of being bribed by the Jews and one rumour had it that the Jews had agreed to acquire St. Paul’s Cathedral for use as a synagogue.

The Council met to debate the issue of readmission but came to no conclusion. In the end Cromwell as Lord Protector jumped in and said that the issue should effectively be left in his own hands. Legally, it was maintained that because the Jews had been expelled by royal decree in 1290 and not an Act of Parliament, the expulsion was not binding on any Jews born after the expulsion date.

Commentators who dwell on the legalities of readmission or the following legal status of the Jews are really missing the point; which was that by 1656, Oliver Cromwell was the man calling the shots in England. It is certainly the case that the Jews were not readmitted by Page 45

Act of Parliament and Cromwell never personally formally allowed their admission, but the key point is that without Cromwell’s tacit protection and his decision not to take the issue back to the split Council, Jews would not have settled here as Jews at that time3.

Once settled, they became immediately helpful to the Protectorate, bringing in capital and supporting the new trade based foreign policy.

They apparently also provided a very good intelligence source during the Anglo-Spanish war, during which time their property was not confiscated, even though they might be considered enemy aliens.

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, petitions were raised for Charles II to remove the rights given to the Jews. A counter petition pointed out that Royalist supporting Jews in Amsterdam had assisted King Charles in Holland during the English republic. This was acknowledged by the King and in 1666 the Jews were legally readmitted. The Amsterdam Jewish community had wisely played the game both ways.

I think that the important point to make here, both from the views of the English Protectorate and the Monarchy, is that the protection afforded to the Anglo Jewish community was at its core directly related to their perceived value to each regime. The religious reasons were more in the nature of background music, though background music without which readmission might not have been culturally acceptable.

As has occurred throughout history, at least until the founding of the State of Israel, the Jewish people were moved or were moving from place to place for shelter and protection. It was this marvellous country that gave us that protection and so it has continued until today.

However, I think that all Anglo Jews should be taught the history of the “readmission”. This is not least because it will teach us that in spite of modern comforts and complacency, how tenuous was the Jewish peoples’ ability to live here in the early days and how grateful we should be to Cromwell.

3

Jews who had been here for a long time were allowed to stay. Those seeking refuge in the wake of the Chmielnicki massacre were turned away.

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For those of you who want to learn more about Cromwell, can I recommend a visit to the small but beautiful Cromwell museum in Huntingdon, of which I am a trustee. And for those of you who can’t visit there is always the website4.

The Cambridge City Food Bank Helen R Goldrein Almost a year ago, in January 2017, I started as a volunteer with Cambridge City Food Bank (CCFB). Being somewhat obsessed with food, I felt horrified that in 21st century Britain - in affluent Cambridge of all places - there are people who do not have enough food to feed their families, children are going to bed hungry, and elderly people are literally starving. I felt compelled to help.

From the outset, I was told that CCFB was a "Christian organisation". I didn't see why this should be a problem. I thought it was reasonable that people of other faiths would be inspired by their beliefs in the same way as my own Jewish values of charity and compassion motivated me to step up to help. I knew that the food bank had been established by a coalition of several local churches and that the distribution centres were all in church buildings, at least in part so that they could avoid paying to use the space. Despite all this, I was made welcome as a volunteer, and it was clear that the organisation would offer help and assistance to anyone who was referred to them, regardless of their faith or background.

Because of my professional experience in public relations, I was swiftly drafted on CCFB's development committee. It was only when I got involved in this behind-the-scenes role that I came to realise that perhaps everything was not quite as it seemed.

4

Also of interest, Cromwell’s head lies buried in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

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The director of CCFB had taken on the role a while before I joined, and it was clear from hearing him speak that the Christian nature of the organisation was very important to him. However I was still completely taken aback when he announced that volunteers in distribution centres (in churches) were going to be asking food bank users if they would like to pray while they were there.

I was horrified. I sat in the committee meeting and felt my heart thudding in my chest, my temperature rising. I could barely speak coherently. Having been on the receiving end of "well-meaning" Christian evangelism before, I could hardly control my emotions.

When I was a first-year undergraduate, I was targeted by evangelists. A long way from home, in a new place, trying to make new friends, I was probably an easy mark. When I realised that some of the people that I'd become close to didn't see me as a friend, but as a target, I felt betrayal, loss, anger, self-loathing, and a whole host of other negative emotions which took years to shake-off. If they could inspire this cocktail of negativity in a warm, well-fed young woman with a supportive family and no dependents, imagine how a desperate mother already at her lowest ebb would feel?

From the outset, CCFB volunteers are asked to empathise with users of the service; to imagine just how awful it must feel to hit rock-bottom and have nowhere to turn. We were asked to imagine the shame, the anger, the feelings of helplessness. All I could now imagine was being in that awful situation, and then also having to deal with predatory evangelism from the very people who you were relying on to offer unconditional help. I felt it was completely intolerable.

I also knew that my personal experience made me biased, so I spoke to a number of friends about the issue, including Jews, Christians (one of them a CofE priest), Muslims, and atheists. Reassuringly, the consensus was overwhelming. This kind of behaviour really is predatory and unacceptable.

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I brought all of this to the director of CCFB, but he would not be swayed. So, with regret, I left the organisation after only a few short months.

In trying to understand the situation that had arisen, I also learned that the Trussell Trust, the umbrella organisation to which CCFB and many other food banks around the country are affiliated, is an evangelical Christian organisation. Offering to pray with service users is one of their policies and something they actively encourage - although not all local food banks implement it. Borehamwood food bank for instance, which is located in an area with a greater Jewish population than Cambridge, considers itself to be non-denominational despite affiliating to the Trussell Trust's network.

I reached a point where I could not in good conscience continue supporting either CCFB or the Trussell Trust either financially or with donations of food.

Which of course leaves me where this began - horrified that there are hungry people all around me and feeling powerless to help them.

Fortunately, there are other organisations, both locally and nationally, that do not have the same Christian agenda as CCFB or the Trussell Trust, and that offer some overlapping services to people in need. They include: • Wintercomfort, which offers food, welfare services, training and advice to homeless or vulnerably homed people in Cambridge • Jimmy's Cambridge which provides emergency accommodation and supported housing for those who would otherwise be homeless • Cambridge Sustainable Food, which among other things runs a community fridge where unwanted perishable items can be donated and made available for free to local people Jewish organisations include:

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• •

Karen Shabbos (aka Chicken for Shabbat), which distributes Shabbat food parcels of fish, chicken, grape juice, and so on to needy Jewish families in North West London L'Chaim Foodbank, which provides emergency food supplies for families in the Manchester area.

If this experience has taught me anything, it is that we must carefully evaluate those charities and organisations we support, and ensure that in our eagerness to help others we do not provide a front for something else that we may not endorse at all. After all, there is no shortage of charities doing amazing (and sadly much-needed) work without any hidden agenda.

Count Filippo Fiorentini Julian Landy This is a portrait of a real but highly improbable person. He visits Cambridge frequently. When here last summer he came with his wife Rachel and their son David to daven with us one Shabbat morning. If you were present you will certainly have noticed him. He is two metres tall (just over 6 foot 6 inches), with unmistakably dashing good looks, hair now more silver than brown; and a reassuring broad grin almost constantly across his face. An extraordinary man: brought up in Cairo his mother was from a Sephardi family that left Egypt before Nasser made it necessary. Her photographs show a very beautiful woman, tall and elegant like her son. Filippo's father was not Jewish but an authentic hereditary Italian count and a highly successful mechanical engineer. His prime business was the importation and local manufacture of heavy engineering and construction equipment. His products were built to his designs. Filippo inherited his father's skills and interests and also calls himself an engineer.

As a young adult, Filippo faced a hard choice. He knew he was a Jew and would be accepted as such. Having been brought up without any substantial religious input, he could equally have become a Catholic, like his father's family. For someone living and working in Italy you Page 50

would imagine that to have been the easier option. But Filippo decided to be a Jew and, insofar as he could, to practise his religion. He and his family live in the Tuscan town of Siena, home of the Palio and arguably one of the most beautiful places in Europe. Brimming with pre- and post-Renaissance buildings all in an apparently good state of repair, it is a most unusual city. One can easily walk right round the centro storico.

The cathedral is magnificent. More extraordinarily, in a place where just 45 people admit to being Jewish, there is a synagogue with a fulltime rabbi. There is just one Shabbat minyan a month but the rabbi conducts classes for children, young adults, and mature adults on three different evenings every week. The shul itself is located down a secluded side street. Eighteenth century and rather austere, it is very well sign-posted. The rabbi acts as tourist guide.

Among much else, Filippo is a member of the Siena Rotary Club which is twinned with the Rotary Club of Cambridge, to which I belong. We exchange visits every two years. In October, Jo and I went on our second trip to Siena, where Filippo excelled himself. Not only did he arrange a fascinating programme for all our members but he also ensured that Jo and I would not be embarrassed or inconvenienced in terms of food or Shabbat. We ate great vegetarian food (including a meal of pasta and very fresh black truffle) and on Shabbat all of the trips involved walking within the old city walls. Like the rest of us, Filippo is far from perfect. He had assured me on our previous visit that all veal in Italy was kosher. He is so tall and distinctive that he is recognised wherever goes and clearly enjoys the attention. But aside from these minor things, he is and was a wonderful host and a charming man. A real mensch.

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Last minute Chanukah mince pies With kiddush wine mincemeat Helen Goldrein Nothing heralds the start of the festive season more than a plate of homemade, fragrant, warm mince pies. Sweet, spicy, fruity and delicious, and since mince pies have no apparent religious significance, I can see no reason not to slot them in next to the latkes in the list of seasonal treats that I make for Chanukah!

Traditional mincemeat is made weeks in advance of using and ‘matured’ in jars before filling pies. I’m not that organised, sadly, so I’ve concocted this recipe for ‘instant mincemeat’ which you can whip together on the day you want to use it, and is 98% as good – close enough as far as I’m concerned. Mincemeat usually has a good slug of alcohol in it, and I’ve used Palwin sweet red kiddush wine (plus a splash of rum), to give a really wonderful Chanukah flavour.

Palwin wines have a long tradition here in the UK. They first appeared in 1898, and is probably the oldest kosher wine brand still in existence.

Palwin no. 10, a sweet, red, dessert wine usually used for kiddush, is now the only product sold under the Palwin label. It's made from freshly gathered wine grapes, without the addition of water or sugar, making it less sweet and more ‘winey’ than some others. Its unique flavour is instantly recognisable to the majority of British Jews, and its fruity richness goes brilliantly with the dried fruits, spices and nuts in these delicious Chanukah mince pies. It seems particularly suited to Chanukah recipes as it is also called ‘Menorah’!

The butter pastry for these pies, while simple, is utterly fabulous, so if you have no reason to make them parve, I urge you to eschew the margarine and make these mince pies with butter instead. You won’t regret it. And since they’re already milchig you might as well serve them with a dollop of cream…

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I cut out the tops of my Chanukah mince pies using the menorah, dreidel and magen david shapes from the Rite Lite Chanukah Cookie Cutters, available from Amazon. They're the perfect size to top a mince pie! You can use them to cut out Chanukah cookies too, if that’s your thing.

For the pastry

For the mincemeat

300g plain flour 150g cold butter (or margarine) 50-60ml cold water A little milk and sugar for the tops

1 apple 2 tbsp dark brown sugar 2 tbsp butter (or margarine) 1.5 tsp mixed spice 0.5 tsp ground allspice 100g raisins, sultanas, or both (ž cup) 65g dried cranberries (1/2 cup) 1 tbsp chopped candied peel 2 tbsp Palwin no. 10 sweet red kiddush wine (+ a little extra) Zest and juice of a tangerine 2 tbsp chopped nuts 1 tbsp rum

To make the pastry

To make the mincemeat pie filling

1. Put the flour into the bowl of the food processor. Cut the butter into cubes and add to the bowl. Process just until a crumbly texture is formed.

2. With the motor running, slowly pour in the water - you may not need all of it. Stop as soon as the mixture forms into a ball 3. Press the ball into a disc and wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before using

1. Peel, core and grate the apple.

Place in a saucepan with the brown sugar, butter, mixed spice and allspice. Cook over a low heat for 3-4 minutes until bubbling and well mixed 2. Add the raisins, cranberries, candied peel, kiddush wine, and tangerine zest and juice. Mix well, cover the pan, and leave to cool 3. Once cold, stir in the nuts and rum.

If the mixture looks a little dry, add a splash more kiddush wine Page 53

To make the pies 1. Preheat the oven to 200C. 2. Roll out the pastry to 4mm thickness. Use a fluted cutter to cut circles and gently press them into the spaces in a tartlet/cupcake tin.

3. Add a generous tablespoon of filling to each pie.

4. Re-roll the pastry if necessary, and cut out Chanukah shapes dreidels, menorahs, and stars to top the pies.

5. Brush the tops with a little milk (or milk alternative) and sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake at 200C for around 20 minutes until lightly golden.

6. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.

Delicious warm or cold!

Happy Chanukah!

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Festival calendar Chanukah 2017 The first night of Chanukah is Tuesday evening, 12 December.

Purim 2018 Purim is in Term time so times are approximate Wednesday 28 February 2018 Thursday 1 March 2018

Maariv 6.15 pm immediately followed by Megillah Reading Shacharit 7:30 am, immediately followed by Megillah Reading

Pesach 2018 Anyone who would like to attend a Seder, or who knows someone who would like to attend a Seder, is invited to consult Barry Landy (Cambridge 570417) who will try to arrange a suitable host.

Derby Stores (Cambridge 354391) will take Pesach orders.

Thursday 29 March Friday 30 March

Saturday 31 March Sunday 1 April Thursday 5 April Friday 6 April Saturday 7 April

Fast of the Firstborn. Shacharit 7am Finish all Chametz by 10.36 am Burning of Chametz by 11.53 am Festival starts 7.15 pm. Minchah, Maariv 7 pm Shacharit 9.30 am Shacharit 9.30 am Festival ends 8.19 pm Festival Starts 7.25 pm. Minchah, Maariv 7.15 pm Shacharit 9.30am Shacharit 9.30 am Shabbat and Festival end 8.31 pm

Shavuot 2018 Shavuot is in University Term, so the services are organised by the students: Page 55

Friday 18 May Saturday 19 May

Sunday 20 May Monday 21 May

Shabbat starts 8:37pm Shacharit 9.30am Shavuot starts at the end of Shabbat (9:53 pm) Minchah, Maariv to be announced Shacharit 9.30 am Shacharit 9.30 am Minchah, Maariv to be announced. Festival Ends 9:57 pm

Tisha B'Av 2018 Saturday 21 July

Sunday 22 July

Fast commences 9:07 pm Shabbat ends 10:07 pm Maariv and Eichah 10.30 pm Shacharit at 8am (expected to finish about 10am) Minchah 1.45 pm or 6 pm (to be decided on the day) Fast ends at 9:55pm

From the children Chanukah at night (front cover) Chana Leigh I chose to draw this eye because I thought that it looked cool, but then you could ask; how does this connect to Chanukah?

Chanukah is something we usually celebrate at night. The eye portrays a city at night with a crescent moon! The reason I drew the deer is because I think it is unfair how a random animal should be off bounds just because Christmas adopted it as a pet!

One of my favourite things about Chanukah is the consumption of vast amounts of doughnuts.

Happy Chanukah!

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Dreidel Game Shaina Leigh

I drew this picture because it reminds me of Chanukah and how special the holiday is. The picture is of chocolate coins and a dreidel, which is what we use to play ‘the dreidel game’ on Chanukah.

Happy Chanukah!

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For the children Lauren Allin

Make a Dreidl then play the Dreidl game You will need some counters and a pencil Colour your Dreidl spinner Cut out the Dreidl spinner Glue it to a thin piece of card Cut the card to the same shape as the Dreidl Push a pencil through the middle Put the counters in in a pile between the players Take it in turns to spin the Dreidl If the Dreidl lands on ‫( נ‬nun) do nothing If it lands on ‫( ג‬gimmel) take all the counters If it lands on ‫( ה‬hey) take half the counters If it lands on ‫( ש‬shin) put all your counters back in the pile

‫ש‬

‫נ‬ ‫ה‬

‫ג‬ Page 59

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