170519 19th May 2017 Hello dear friends, I hope you are well. Just by the way, it isn’t that our politicians/leaders are any worse than before it’s just that now we know about it! The Sacred Cow is dead. For so many years, indeed until the current era of the Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook we were…

170512 12th May, 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. How was your week? Mine was insanely busy but that means I am still alive and with it so, I guess that’s fine!!! Actually it has been a very busy news week too. Rather a “good news-bad news” wekk. It is good news that 82 girls have been…

170505 5th May 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. A week of mourning and celebration, of anticipation and history, so let’s begin with a quote from my dear friend Rabbi Jeremy Rosen who as always has encapsulated my feelings in his very first sentence. ” Israel’s Independence Day, Yom Ha’atzmaut, brings out the best and the worst in…

170428 28th April 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear Friends  I just finished preparing the challah dough, setting the table for Shabbat and I heard it, the roar of jet planes overhead, swooping and diving, in perfect formations, four at a time. No we aren’t at war, as far as I know, the incredible pilots of the Israeli…

170420 20th April 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I hope your Pesach, Paschah, Easter went smoothly and that your home has returned to normal. Marwan Bargouti is in an Israeli prison for acts of terror, he receives more than the rights demanded by the Geneva Convention and he has completed his PhD while incarcerated. He is a…

170414 14th April 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Last evening in Jerusalem we were visiting friends when Rachel called me to switch on the television. “The Americans have bombed ISIS in Afghanistan” The description of “The Mother of all Bombs” immediately suggests that the United States was attacking in a vacuum, exhibiting her might rather…

170407 7th April, 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. In 2013 President Obama said that if the Syrian regime used chemical weapons he would respond swiftly and firmly. Two days ago the Assad regime bombed the town of Idlib with Sarin, a deadly gas which caused children to foam at the mouth, seize and have great difficulty breathing.…

170331 31st March 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. I bet you thought I wasn’t going to write today! In truth I wasn’t well yesterday and missed out on Zvi’s big event of the year. 20 choirs from all over Israel put on a terrific show to the delight of a sold out audience. So proud…

170324 24TH March 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. This week has been overtaken by deep sadness as terror strike again, this time in the heart of London. 4 people lost their lives including an unarmed policeman, Constable Keith Palmer, just 44 years old, who, through his incredible bravery, stopped the slaughter by halting the terrorist in…

170316 16th March, 2017 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Last week I let you off lightly because of Purim but this week I am raising a few highly contentious subjects because my conscience demands I do so. The basic principle of Judaism, indeed the ethos of Judaism, is to question, no stone of contention is left unturned…