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Why are Jews successful in business?

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 8:31:00 PM

Oxford University Chabad Society had the honour of hosting Kivi Bernhard for a talk at its Slager Jewish student Centre on Tuesday 31st of January. Mr. Bernhard, a South African who has been based in the US since the 1990s, is known as one of the most sought-after motivational speakers in the world today, as author of the internationally acclaimed book “Leopardology – The Hunt For Profit In A Tough Global Economy” and as successful entrepreneur in the diamond industry.

Kivi, also known as ‘The Jungle Jew’ in the US media, spoke of his strong attachment to and roots in Orthodox Judaism and the role and responsibilities of Jews in today’s world.

Specifically, he hypothesized that the Jewish person is related to a unique ‘seventh’ dimension, beyond the six dimensions of material existence - in some way connected to the Shabbat, according to the Kabbala - that allows Jews to see connection of aspects of reality where others might not. He argued that it is a certain transcendence that, while elevates them above existence to a certain degree, allows them to see things strategically that others might overlook. This, he claims, makes them sought after on executive boards in the world of finance and as the world is changing course, Jews will continue to contribute in their own important way in shaping the future.

In his second part of the speech, Kivi described his now-famous concept of leopardology, derived from his long-held passion for the African Bush, as a way to succeed in the business world. By describing the hunting style of the leopard, maybe not the most deadly yet definitely the smartest of all hunters in Africa, Mr Bernhard was able to draw fascinating parallels between the animal’s hunt and the path to success for today’s enterprises.

Despite the grim economic environment, Kivi’s speech was optimistic and inspirational. Even in a tough environment it is possible to thrive. The leopard knows how, and we can learn it as well. By bringing this message across, Kivi Bernhard was definitely able to create a lasting impression at Oxford Chabad’s event.

The event was opened by the President of the OU Chabad Society Oleg Giberstein and the speaker was introduced by local business Jewish entrepreneur Steven Zimmer. The talk was received with great interest and predictably followed by much debate and discussion.

Holocaust Memorial Lecture at the Oxford University Chabad Society

Wed, 1 Feb 2012 9:24:00 AM

On 29 January, 2012, two days after Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Oxford University Chabad Society hosted an event to commemorate 70 years since the Nazi Wannsee Conference. Three speakers shared their insight and experiences of the European climate during this period of social and political upheaval. Dr. Alexandra Lloyd, a professor of German studies at Oxford University, spoke of the difficulties of Jewish children growing up in a war-torn Germany in the 1940s. She made the poignant remark that for children, watching adults slowly unravel as the difficult climate, having close family members brutally taken from them, took its toll was one of the many tragic consequences of growing up during this period.

Fritz Sternhell, an Austrian Jewish Kindertransport refugee and current Oxford resident, spoke of how though he was disconnected from his Jewish identity growing up in pre-war Vienna, he was subject to anti-Semitism and persecution through the Nuremberg laws not allowing him to sit on park benches. He said ironically, the law of having Jewish only classes allowed for less attacks on them by their non-Jewish peers after the Anschluss in March 1938, when Austria became part of the Third Reich. Despite enduring unavoidable hardship as a child, losing his father, he declared that he considers himself fortunate to have had the opportunity by the insistence of his family to leave central Europe under a period of oppression, and to make a happy life for himself in Britain even though he father didn’t manage to survive.

Mr. Sternhell also spoke about joining the British army after the war and being sent to Palestine only to demand to be released from High Command due to internal conflict in his role as law enforcement with having to perform searches amongst fellow Jews, some of whom were family members in Tel Aviv.

Lastly, Auschwitz survivor Victor Greenberg described the devastation he endured when his family was murdered in the concentration camps, and he barely made it out alive. He told how miraculously at the selection ramp when he arrived at Auschwitz someone randomly came up to him and asked him his age. He said fourteen, upon the person corrected him and said, no, you’re eighteen. He said this saved his life, as children under eighteen and women were sent straight to the gas chambers, as his mother and younger siblings were.

Greenberg ended his moving speech on a positive note, explaining that he has been blessed with a growing family of three children and eight grandchildren, and encouraging the audience to cherish life and live it to the fullest. He intimated that he struggled with identity after the war, after what he had witnessed but made a conscious decision that he will live proudly Jewish and enjoy living for the future. The central message conveyed by the three speakers was that humans have an extraordinary ability to rise out of the worst forms of devastation and despair.

The speakers were welcomed by the society director, Rabbi Eli Brackman, with an introduction by senior member Sara Tisch.

The History of the Brachmann Family of Eastern Europe & the Holocaust

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 11:17:00 AM

The history of the Brackman, known formerly as Brachmann, family is, a story of, as many Eastern European Jewish families, survival, tragedy of the Holocaust and revival. This article will for the first time offer a chronological insight into the history of the Brachmann family from Eastern Europe and a preliminary sketch of its past up to the present, which will hopefully serve as the bases for further research and a memorial.

The history of the Brackman family that can be traced dates back to the end of the 18th century with the presence of Jews in Kuldīga, in German Goldingen, Latvia. The family seems to have had a substantial presence in the town with many related family members. The end of the Brackman family in Latvia, as with millions of others in Eastern Europe, however, tragically ended in 1941 with old and young slaughtered in the Holocaust at the hands of the brutal Nazis and their Latvian collaborators. This took place in the dunes near Liepaja on the Baltic Sea, or nearby, in one of, according to Holocaust historians, the most horrific killings the Holocaust saw.

To understand the history of the Brackman family one has to first understand the history of the Jews of Kuldiga. The following brief history has been compiled by Eric Benjaminson with material provided by Latvian genealogist Aleksandrs Feigmanis.

History of Kuldiga

Kuldiga is an ancient town in western Latvia that is mentioned for the first time in 1242. In 1368, Kuldiga (then known in German as Goldingen) became a member of the Hanseatic League of trading cities by virtue of its location as a river port with an outlet to the Baltic Sea.

From 1596 until 1616, Kuldiga was the capital of the Duchy of Courland, and enjoyed its most prosperous period in the 17th century. During this economic boom, a shipyard and a nail and anchor forge were established. The town was captured and damaged by Swedish armies during the Great Northern War in 1702.

The town was incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1795 and suffered some stagnation until the Imperial "Rule on Trade and Industrial Freedom" in 1866 allowed economic opportunities and some commensurate growth.

Founding of Jewish community in Kuldiga and arrival of Jews

Jews had been scattered without legal status in Courland from as early as the late fourteenth century. It is believed that the first Jewish settlement in Kuldiga began at the end of the seventeenth century.

However, it was only from 1795, after Courland was annexed by Russia, Jews in the region were granted civic rights and Jewish communities in Kuldiga and elsewhere grew quickly. In 1800, there were 658 Jewish merchants and craftsmen living in the Goldingen district, fifteen percent of the total district population 4350.

In approximately 1801, the first official synagogue was built and a burial society (chevra kadisha) was founded. A short while thereafter a "Talmud Torah" school was built and a society for help to poor brides (Gmilut Chassadim) and other Jewish social organizations were formed. The first rabbi assumed office in 1826. One illustrious rabbi was the father of the founder of the Musar movement, Rabbi Israel Lipkin, known as Yisrael Salanter. The first state school for Jewish boys was organized in 1850.

Jews who had the means also sent their children to the local German high school. By 1901 there were three private Jewish schools in the town; one for boys and the other two for girls. The languages of instruction at the school were German and Hebrew.

The first Jews to settle in Kuldiga were strongly influenced by German culture and by the Jewish enlightenment movement, the Haskalah. A later influx of Jews from the Pale of Settlement in Russia and from Lithuania consisted in large part of "shomrei masoret" (religious observers), and they organized a group of Chassidim.

Kuldiga's Jews in the beginning, with great difficulty, earned a living through small scale commerce, peddling, the sale of second-hand clothing, the leasing of inns, production of strong liquors and as middlemen. From the end of the 19th century their economic situation began to improve, and the Jewish merchants in some cases supplanted the Baltic German businessmen. Jews, for example, built a flour mill and factories for the manufacture of matches and needles and established a credit fund for Jewish merchants and tradesmen.

By 1835, the total Jewish population, families included, was 2330, already fifty-seven percent of the population. In 1850, there were a total of 2534 Jewish residents, of whom 112 were merchants and 1137 working craftsmen.

In 1840, 171 of Kuldiga's Jews (22 families) left for agricultural settlements in the southern Russian province of Cherson, to take up a Czarist offer of land and exemption from military service and certain taxes in return for settling these territories bordering the Ottoman Empire. In the second half of the century a large number of Latvians came to the town and the Jewish community lost its majority status. In 1897 there were 2,543 Jewish residents, twenty-six percent of a total population of 9,720.

Jewish migration from Kuldiga to Liepaja and beyond

Along with difficult economic and political times in the latter half of the nineteenth century, Kuldiga's Jews began to emigrate. Some stayed in Latvia but moved to the larger port cities of Libau, also called Liepaja, in the south, and Windau, in the north, where there was greater economic activity. Others, either using these cities as jumping-off points or leaving directly from Kuldiga, emigrated to the U.S. or South Africa.

It is also noteworthy for our story that developments in maritime transportation both increased the number of emigrants and pointed them in specific directions. Not only did steamship services become more affordable, more regular and safer, but agents of large European shipping lines posted in Russia encouraged potential emigrants to travel to destinations according to the economic needs of the shipping companies. "Package deals" for Baltic Jews to South Africa, travelling via England, were one such incentive; passage to the U.S. via Hamburg was another.

By 1935 the Jewish population had declined to only nine percent of the town's 7000 inhabitants. Much of this decline was due to the fact that during the First World War, the Jews of Courland were banished to the interior of Russia as suspected German sympathizers. During the course of the war many community buildings and Jewish houses were destroyed. After the war about a third of the Jews returned to the town and the community was rehabilitated with the help of the "Joint" (a relief agency of American Jewry). The Jews gradually re-consolidated their position and in 1935, of the 205 shops and businesses in the town 95 were owned by Jews.

The Holocaust in Kuldiga

On August 23, 1939, the Soviet Army established bases in Latvia and in the summer of 1940 a Soviet regime was installed. Jewish public institutions were gradually liquidated. After the Nazi invasion of Russia in June 1941, about one-tenth of the Jews of Kuldiga succeeded in escaping to the interior of Russia. The young men among them were conscripted into the Soviet Army. On July 1, 1941, when the Nazis occupied the town, the majority of the community was still there. Immediately thereafter Latvian fascists began rioting against the Jews and murdered several of them. The remaining Jews were ordered to perform forced labor.

One day all the Jews were concentrated in the synagogue from which the men were taken to a nearby forest. There they were murdered in pits which they had been forced to dig. Others were taken to be murdered in the Padura Forest a few kilometers from the town. The Kuldiga Jews were thereby destroyed by the beginning of 1942, the property of the Jews was divided among their murderers and the Torah scrolls were put into the municipal archives.

Several Jews, who were hidden by farmers, survived. The town was liberated by the Soviets in 1944. After the war a number of families returned to the town. One of these Jews was killed by opponents of the Soviet regime. The survivors brought back the remains of those murdered for a Jewish burial. The Torah scrolls were returned to the Jews who organized a minyan. The synagogue, which had been converted into a movie house, was not returned (and remains today as a cinema). Over time the survivors left the town, many of them made aliyah to Israel and the minyan ceased to exist, thus ending the approximately 150 year history of the Jewish community of Kuldiga.

The Brachmann family of Kuldiga

The modern settlement of Jews in Kuldiga thus begun in 1795 when Kuldiga was annexed by Russia and Jews were given civic rights to live their as citizens. It appears that it was during this first wave of Jews settling in Kuldiga, at about 1800, when the Brackman family, known then as Brachmann, arrived in Kuldiga, though it is possible they had been there since 17th century or earlier.

The first mention of the family name Brachmann residing in Kuldiga is found in the 1842 family register in the State Historical Archives in Riga that shows the names of Jewish families then resident in Goldingen (Kuldiga), together with first names, father’s name, occasionally age and some comments. The list was transcribed and donated by Dr. Martha Lev-Zion of Ben Gurion University (www.jewishgen.org/courland/goldingen_1842.htm).

In this register, it lists two Brachmann names: Baruch son of Heyman Brachmann (no. 227) and Chaim son of Baruch Brachmann (no. 5).

It seems from this list that the name Brachmann came from the name Baruch, similar to the other names on the list, whose surname is a derivative of their first name, for example, Hirsch’s family name is Hirschberg and Ahron is Ahronsberg. Similarly, Baruch became Brachmann.

The father of Baruch Brachmann is Heyman. The only Heyman on the 1842 list is a Heymann son of Salomon Nogaller (no. 125), who most likely was the grandfather. It seems that Nogaller comes from a name of nearby district in Courland with a similar name.

From the Kuldiga register of 1842, it appears that Heyman had an extensive family, in addition to his son Baruch, and many of them associated their family names with the patriarchal name Heyman. It is possible that the following list of people in the 1842 register were also sons of Heyman: Salomon son of Heyman Glatzmann; Levin son of Heymann Heymansohn; Behr son of Heymann Weinberg; Daniel son of Heymann Braneburger; and Abraham son of Heymann Shachter.

The following could have been his grandchildren: Josel son of Salomon Heyman; Behr son of Abraham Heyman.

In addition, there is an Isaac Blumberg son of Samuel, listed as nephew to Heymann Salomon Nogaller, and Levin son of Samuel Blumberg, also nephew to Heymann Salomon Nogaller. Finally, there is also a Levin son of Michel Heymansohn; Salomon son of Chaim Heymann; and Levin son of Chaim Heymann.

Although it can’t be proven with certainty they were all related, it appears likely they were, typical to a close nit life of a Shtetl, and it would appear that the Heyman family had then quite an extensive family in Kuldiga.

1799 tax register of Jews of Kuldiga

There is also an earlier register with a list of Jews of Kuldiga from 1799, called the “Goldingen Oklad (tax) 1799” and is among the earliest of the Courland archival records. It was microfilmed in 1940 and now held by the Herder Institute at the University of Marburg, Germany. The copies were made from a set held by the Family History Library of the Mormon church, and are used with the permission of the Herder Institute.

In the Goldingen Oklad (tax) 1799 register (www.jewishgen.org/courland/goldingen.htm), there are only two listings with the name Heymann, which could have possibly been Baruch’s father, Heyman. One is a Heymann son of Salomon Marcus and Rive. His brother was also called Marcus. Another listing is Heymann Salomon, whose mother was Mine and brother Boroch and sister Dewora.

If this is so, it would then appear that the Brachmann family was one of the earlier families to arrive in the 18th century in Kuldiga and grew to be a sizable family in the town with many relatives.

We can deduce from the above research the following possible lineage from 1799 to 1842: Salomon, Heyman, Boruch Brachmann and Chaim Brachmann.

There is also listed in Courland register list, as army recruits, Fabian Brachmann, son of Henoch, born in 1819, and Baruch, son of Henoch, born in 1816, both residence of Kuldiga (http://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=39&gsln=Hennoch&gsln_x=XO). They appear to be brothers, both sons of Henoch.

It is unclear whether Baruch son Henoch is the same as Baruch son of Heyman and if not why they are not listed in the 1842 census as a Brachmann with residence in Kuldiga.

Other Brachmanns found in Kuldiga are Abraham Brachmann and Meta Brachmann (http://unclaimedpoliciesswissre.org/)

Aron son of Chanoch Brachmann

The next Brachmann family member of the 19th century discovered to be born in Kuldiga is Aron Brachmann and his father was called Chanoch. As he was most likely born only in the 1850’s, he is not recorded on the 1842 register.

Aron Brachmann married a girl called Klara, who was also born in Kuldiga on 11 January, 1857 (www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm).

The name Aron Brachmann can also be found in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 (www.liepajajews.org/cem/1935_41.htm), where there is a listing Aron ben Chanoch Bruchman, passed away 30 November, 1938 / 8 Kislev, 5699.

Aaron and Klara had three children, called Freide, who was born 12 December 1892, Paula and Shalom Shachna - Sasha Sydney.

Aron son of Chanoch Brachmann

It is possible, though there is no evidence, that Chanoch, father of Aron Brachmann, was indeed the son of Chaim Brachmann. If this was the case, one would have to assume that Chanoch must have been about fifteen years old in 1842, so that he can have a child, Aron, in 1850’s, as Aron later married Klara, who was born in 1857. Indeed, this would mean that teenage children were not consistently listed in the 1842 register, though it appears that some clearly were.

If this is the case, we have a

clear line of the Brachmann family lineage of Kuldiga going back to 1799: Salomon, Heyman, Baruch, Chaim, Chanoch and Aron.

Brachmanns leaves Kuldiga to Liepaja

Many members of the Brachmann family did not stay in Kuldiga; they moved further west to Liepaja, a port city on the Baltic Sea and third biggest city in Latvia. There is evidence that Aron and Klara both died not in Kuldiga but rather Liepaja.

In a person sheet with the passing of Klara in 1941, killed by the Nazis, it states she was born in Kuldiga and died in Liepaja (www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm).

Similarly, Aron died on 30 November 1938 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Liepaja. His burial is listed in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 with the name Aron son of Chanoch Bruchman, passed away 30 November, 1938 / 8 Kislev, 5699 (www.liepajajews.org/cem/1935_41.htm).

Their address in December in Liepaja in 1938 was Ulicha 58-1 (http://www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm).

Another entry in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 is Abram son of Chanoch Bruchman, who passed away 4 January, 1935 / 1 Shvat, 5695. One can assume that Abram, who died 2 years before Aron, in Liepaja, was his brother, both sons of Chanoch.

The name that appears in Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 is spelled Bruchman, however, as it explains in the introduction, the names are recorded from the Hebrew without concern for the precise common spelling in the English.

This is also evident from the above mentioned "person sheet" of Klara Brachmann that lists her husband Aron’s passing with the same date that is recorded in the Liepaja Jewish Cemetery book 1935-1941 - 30 November, 1938 / 8 Kislev, 5699.

One can deduce that Aron passed away in the evening, when it was already the next day according to the Hebrew calendar. Had he passed away earlier in the day it would have been 7 Kislev, which corresponds to 30 Nov, 1938.

When did Brachmann’s leave Kuldiga?

Aron and Klara and the family would have left Kuldiga for Liepaja certainly not before 1892, as Freide was born in Kuldiga on 12 December, 1892. It is not known however how long afterwards they moved to Liepaja.

One can assume however that the reason for them leaving had not to do the evacuation of the Jews from Kuldiga during the First Work War or later.

The reason for this is, due to the following sequence of events. There were three waves when Jews seemed to have left Kuldiga. The first was during the 19th century, when Jews were looking for greater economic opportunities and they moved to the major port cities of Liepaja, in German Libau, and Windau in the North where there was greater economic activity.

The second wave was the expulsions during the First World War when the Jews of Courland were banished to the interior of Russia as suspected German sympathizers. During the course of the war many community buildings and Jewish houses were destroyed and after the war only about a third of the Jews returned to the town.

The third wave was after the Nazi invasion of Russia in June 1941, when about one-tenth of the Jews of Kuldiga succeeded in escaping to the interior of Russia and many were conscripted. The rest were rounded up and shot by the Nazis.

As they moved to Liepaja and not to the Russian interior, it would seem the migration of the Brachmann family from Kuldiga was in the 19th century, not long after the birth of Freide.

Brachmann’s leave Liepaja

On the Liepaja Jews "Person Sheet” listing the death of Klara, it states that Paula emigrated to South Africa and Sasha Sydney (Shalom Shachna) to England. In was in England where the name Brachmann became Brackman (www.liepajajews.org/ps03/ps03_289.htm).

Paula married Hugo Agmon, born in South Africa, and had two children Yael and Edna, currently living in Israel.

The reason why Paula and Shalom Shachna - Sasha Brachmann emigrated not to the US but to South Africa and England respectively is explained, as stated earlier in the history of Kuldiga, that in the 19th century agents of large European shipping lines posted in Russia were encouraging potential emigrants to travel to destinations according to the economic needs of the shipping companies and "package deals" for Baltic Jews to travel to South Africa, via England, were one such incentive.

It is interesting therefore that Paula continued on her journey to South Africa, while Shalom stayed in England.

It is possible that he also intended to continue to South Africa and desired to arrange for his parents, Klara and Aron, to join him in England and perhaps then continue as a family to South Africa where Paula had already settled.

The place where Shalom - Sasha Sydney settled was Northern England, in Manchester, and in 1921 opened a Kosher bakery called Brackman’s bakery on Leicester Road, while he lived around the corner on Northumberland Street. It subseqently became the longeststanding Kosher bakery in Manchester.

Shalom - Sasha married another immigrant Chava Feitelson, which became shortened to Filson, and had a son Derek Samuel in 1928, who later studied at Manchester University and got a doctorate in chemistry. He subsequently moved to London, where he found work with ICI, and raised a family of seven boys and 2 girls, some who became rabbis in different communities in Europe and the US.

The name became somewhat anglicized in England, pronounced Brackman, a further derivative of the original Boruch ben Heyman of Kuldiga.

Elderly Brachmann family stays in Liepaja with young family

Aron and Klara and their daughter Freide meanwhile unfortunately never left Liepaja, perhaps due to old age of Aron and Klara and Freide not wanting to leave them alone or for economic reasons.

Freide married Josef Glasser, also from Kuldiga, born about 1892, most likely a descendent of Schmuel ben Juddel Glasser, who is mentioned in the 1842 register of Kuldiga. Freide and Josef had three children: Hena, born 1927, Selma, born 1930, and Henoch, born 1932.

Liepaja (Libau) and the Holocaust

The tragic end of the Brachmann family who remained in Liepaja was in 1941 when Klara, Freide, her husband Josef, and their three children under 15 years old were all murdered by the Nazis with the help of Latvian auxiliary police.

With the conquest of Liepaja by the Germans on 29 June, 1941, the Jewish population counted over 7,100 people and immediately the systematic extermination began. The killings took pace principally in three places, in "Rainis Park" in the city centre, where there were trenches dug by Latvians for the defense of Liepaja; a small fishing port near the Lighthouse at the entrance of the Port; and most took place in trenches dug in the dunes near Shkeden on the beach.

On 30 June, the day after the invasion, there were random shootings of Jews who showed up to work in Liepāja by German soldiers. About 100 Jews were killed in these shootings. On 3 and 4 July, 1,430 Jews were killed in the park in the centre of Liepaja, however due to complaints this location was no longer used for executions. Another supposed revenge mass shooting took place on 7 July. Between 8th and 10 July, about 600 were shot, shooting ten at a time. According to testimony, about 200 were killed each day.

Shootings of small groups of Jews continued after 10 July, occurring every evening. This was a pattern particular to SS-Untersturmführer Wolfgang Kügler’s administration in Liepaja.

A major execution took place on 24th and 25th of July, when about 1,100 men were assembled on the "Hauptwachplatz" and after their papers and valuables were taken from them, they were transported to the port near the lighthouse and killed. This was done by the urging to accelerate the killings by German naval commandant in Liepaja, Fregattenkapitän Dr. Hans Kawelmacher.

The killings continued in August but on a lessened scale. From 30 August to 10 December, 1941, there were a large number of shootings, in which about 600 Jews were killed near the harbor and the light house during this period (Ezergailis, The Holocaust in Latvia, at page 33, n.81).

The largest killings took place on the beach near Shkeden. On three days, 15-17 Dec, 2,731 Jews were shot on the beach.

By the end of June 1942 the Ghetto of Liepaja was founded, where the remaining 816 people including 175 males were settled. The Ghetto existed 18 months and was dismantled on 18 October, 1943, when all the inhabitants were transported to the "Kaiserwald" Camp near Riga. Of those who were sent there, 360 people were sent to Auschwitz. When Liepaja was liberated by the Russians, 40 Jews were found alive.

In one of these many shootings, Klara Brachmann, great grandmother to the Brackman family in England, a widow of 84 years old, her daughter Freide, 49, her husband Josef Glasser, about 49, and three daughters, Hena 14, Selma 11, and Henoch 9, were all mercilessly shot and killed into mass graves near the Baltic Sea.

May their memories be for a blessing and live on in the lives of their family members who survived and have helped rebuild Jewish life after the destruction of Holocaust.

UK and EU Chabad on Campus Rabbis unite for historic Conference in Manchester

Thu, 5 Jan 2012 3:30:00 PM

This week, twenty Chabad on Campus couples and their families representing 16 centres across the UK and Europe converged in a hotel in Altrincham, South Manchester, for a two day conference to discuss vital issues confronting Jewish students in the UK and Europe today.

The fifth annual conference was opened by chairman of Chabad on Campus UK and coordinator for Europe, Rabbi Eli Brackman, who is also director of Chabad of Oxford, and Executive Vice President of Chabad on Campus International Foundation, Rabbi Yossy Gordon.

The participants attended specialised workshops covering the full spectrum of their important work on campus, including sessions on Jewish education, student leadership, combating assimilation, anti-Semitism, media, development and student led programming.

This year's conference marks a phase of unprecedented growth of Chabad on Campus UK and Europe with the opening of its most recent centres in Manchester and Birmingham, completing 14 centres spanning the whole UK, the purchase of a major Jewish student centre in Brighton, and a further expansion on the European continent that is currently under way, including centres in Paris, Hungary, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin and Stockholm.

"Incorporating Europe into the UK conference for the first time is a historic development for Chabad on Campus and an enormous success, said Rabbi Eli Brackman, chairman of Chabad on Campus UK, who is also directing the European expansion, with Rabbi Michoel Danow of Chabad on campus at Leeds University.

“This successful conference will help further invigorate the crucial work the rabbis are doing on university campuses in support of the Jewish students, despite the challenges Jewish students are facing in the UK and Europe today”, Brackman added.

The highlight of the conference was a gala banquet at the home of Manchester communal philanthropist, friend and partner of Chabad on Campus UK, Mr. Zalman and Risa Klyne, attended by many local dignitaries and Jewish community leaders.

"The dinner was prepared fit for a king," Zalman Klyne said. "This was our tribute to the Shluchim, we wanted to honor them for their incredible work."

"Chabad takes care of my three Jewish needs on Campus: education, family support and Kosher food", said Jonathan Chernick, medical student at Manchester University, during a speech he gave at the banquet. He summed up the work of Chabad on university campuses as a real home away from home for the Jewish students in all its aspects.

Representing the worldwide network of campus Chabad centres, Rabbi Yossy Gordon, Executive Vice President of Chabad on Campus International Foundation expressed his thoughts on the joint UK and EU conference saying "the warmth and dedication of the Chabad Shluchim (emissaries) on campus is exhilarating. The practical ideas and inspiration shared at the conference in Manchester will bring a greater measure of success to the Chabad on campus centres in the UK and EU."

Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch, Chabad-Lubavitch’s educational arm, and Chairman of Chabad on Campus International Foundation, said that “a focus of the conference was how to help create more committed and inspired Jewish leaders in Europe for future generations.”

Rabbi Bentzi Sudak, of Lubavitch UK, commented, “What was very obvious at this most successful and inspiring conference, was the tremendous growth Chabad is seeing in its crucial work on behalf of each and every Jewish student throughout the UK. This is a tribute to the talented, selfless couples who run each Centre, and the generous and visionary supporters who make this possible.”

The conference was organised by a steering committee which included Manchester's Chabad on campus Rabbi Zalman and Mushky Loewenthal, Liverpool's Rabbi Shmuli and Tzivia Brown, Leeds's Rabbi Michoel and Chana Danow and others.

For more information please visit www.ChabadonCampus.org.uk or www.chabadoncampus.eu .

Oxford Jewish alumni celebrate engagement & wedding at Chanukah party in Mayfair

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 7:39:00 AM

Over 60 Oxford alumni and friends attended Friends of Oxford Chabad Society’s annual Chanukah party in Mayfair last night hosted by Oxford alumnus Alexander Telford and family.

The event took place for the third year running in high-end venue Nove Bar, on Sackville Street, round the corner from Piccadilly Circus, with a Kosher Sushi bar and drinks, as well as traditional Chanukah delacacies, kindly sponsored by Parkway Kosher Patisserie.

The highlight of the gathering, in addition to meeting up with old friends, was the celebration of the recent engagement of Alex Telford (St Peters) to Emma Zimmerman and the recent marriage of Jonny Hyam (Wolfson) to Natasha Shina. They both led the kindling of the Menorah for the evening. We wish them many happy years together.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, welcomed the crowd and addressed the theme of Chanukah as emphasising the need to resist watering-down of Jewish heritage and identity, as the Greeks tried to do in the 2nd century BCE, and also show gratitude for blessings in life.

Aryeh Kahn, who graduated Oxford in 1999, said that it was ‘a fantastic and enjoyable Chanukah cocktail that the Chabad Society put on in Mayfair!!’

Oxford celebrates Jewish festival of Chanukah with Lighting of Giant Candelabra on Broad Street

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 6:15:00 AM

Over 150 people celebrated the beginning of the Jewish Festival of Chanukah with the lighting of the giant menorah candelabra on Broad Street, Oxford, this past Tuesday, 20 Dec, with the Lord Mayor of Oxford, Cllr Elise Benjamin, organised by Chabad of Oxford.

Oxford Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, addressed the theme of the festival that dates back to 2nd century BCE when the Jews in the Holy Land were under threat of Helenization by the Seleucid Greeks and were successful in maintaining their heritage and traditions against all odds. Rabbi Brackman said that the holiday is relevant to today’s time promoting the values of freedom of expression and religion and the triumph of light over darkness.

The lighting of the candelabra recounts the miracle of the lights when the Jews reclaimed the Jerusalem Temple from the Greeks, they only discovered a single cruise of oil for the kindling of the Temple Menorah but miraculously burned for eight consecutive days, thus establishing the festival of Lights - Chanukah.

The lighting in Oxford is performed each year in Oxford in memory of late Jewish City Councillor, Dr. Mike Woodin, who was instrumental in helping establish this tradition in Oxford together with Chabad of Oxford in 2001.

The Menorah will be kindled each evening, 20-27 Dec, at 5pm, outside Balliol College on Broad Street.

For more information about this holiday, visit: www.oxfordchabad.org/chanukah

Pictures taken by Agnieszka Badger

Giant menorah wrecked and rebuilt - just in time

Fri, 23 Dec 2011 6:09:00 AM

Volunteers rebuilt a 15ft menorah in less than six hours after vandals destroyed Scotland's biggest public chanuciah in an antisemitic attack.

Edinburgh Chabad constructed and installed the new menorah in time for Tuesday night's first candle-lighting - describing the feat as a modern-day Chanucah miracle.

The original menorah - erected in the city's St Andrew's Square - was found destroyed earlier the same day. Its broken pieces were recovered close to tents set up in the square by the Occupy Edinburgh movement.

Rabbi Pinny Weinman said: "We put up the menorah on Monday afternoon and it was all wired up ready for lighting. At midday on Tuesday I got a call saying the menorah had been totally destroyed.

"We did not cancel the ceremony. We pulled together a team of people to build a new one from scratch, using wood, and it was then spray-painted. It was ready just in time for the lighting."

A crowd of around 200 people gathered in the square to cheer the new menorah's arrival.

Rabbi Weinman said: "It really brought people together to see this Chanucah miracle."

In a statement, Lothian and Borders Police confirmed officers were investigating the vandalism and treating the incident as a hate crime. They will also keep watch over the new menorah to avoid a repeat of the attack.

Following the candle-lighting, a Chanucah party was held in a bar at the nearby Harvey Nichols store.

New Israeli Ambassador to the UK honoured at Oxford University Chabad Society reception

Thu, 1 Dec 2011 7:33:00 AM

The Oxford University Chabad Society honoured the new Oxford educated Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Court of St James, His Excellency Mr. Daniel Taub, with an exclusive buffet reception just a week after he submitted his credentials to HM the Queen.

Close to a hundred students and community members attended the reception, which took place at the Oxford Jewish Centre, and was preceded by a lecture organised by the Oxford Jewish Congregation.

The president of the Oxford University Chabad Society, Oleg Giberstein of St Antony’s college, welcomed the Ambassador on behalf of the Oxford University Chabad Society and the Jewish students at the university and wished him well on his ambition to reach out directly to British society in representing Israel, despite a sometimes unsympathetic audience.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, opened the ceremony with greetings and said that it was an honour to host the new Israeli Ambassador in Oxford and pointed out the longstanding strong support of Chabad for the well being, welfare and security of Israel.

British-born Mr Taub was previously the Israeli Foreign Ministry's deputy legal counsel and was a regular spokesman for the Israeli government. He has also been a member of the Israeli teams in Israel's negotiations with both Syria and the Palestinians, and served as head of the Israeli side of the Israeli-Palestinian Culture of Peace negotiations.

Thanksgiving Shabbat dinner with lecture by Oxford Professor of American Literature Ron Bush

Thu, 1 Dec 2011 7:30:00 AM

On November 25th the Oxford University Chabad Society held its annual Thanksgiving Shabbat Dinner at the Slager Jewish student centre. Guest of honour was Drue Heinz Professor of American Literature Ron Bush who has been teaching at St John’s College, Oxford for the last 14 years.

The topic of Professor Bush’s talk was ‘Ezra Pound and the Jews’ and the Professor was explaining to about 50 guests who were attending the dinner his fascination with the classic anti-Semite yet great poet, Ezra Pound.

Professor Bush made a connection between Pound and other famous literary minds with anti-Semitic tendencies, for example Henry James or Hemingway, and spoke of the deeply ambivalent attraction of modernist writers to Jews.

For his own conclusion as to where his fascination is coming from, Professor Bush quoted the Jewish American critic Alfred Kazin who wrote in 1949, “We cannot let them go nor can they let us go, for they imitate us, they are obviously fascinated by us,” and we in return are drawn not to modernist humanists “but precisely to the nasty ones.”

Professor Bush and the American as well as non-American guests of the Thanksgiving Shabbat Dinner were welcomed by president of Chabad Society, Oleg Giberstein, and Freida Brackman who once again delighted the crowd with a wonderful and traditional Turkey dinner.

Summary of the talk by Professor Ron Bush:

"Ezra Pound, one of the founders of Anglo-American modernism, was in some ways a classic anti-Semite of the early twentieth century who identified Jews with the bankers who profited from the Great War and also with the whole market system of modernity that reduced art (c.f. his “Hugh Selwyn Mauberley”) to the status of a commodity “in the market place”.

He was, however, also a great poet, without whom it is impossible to understand writing in English in the twentieth century.

Examining his anti-Semitism raises interesting questions not only about the relations between the imagination and prejudice (questions that have more recently been pondered by Umberto Eco in

The Prague Cemetery), but more specifically about the deeply ambivalent attraction of modernist writers to the Jews.

As Jonathan Freedman has noticed, alienated and cosmopolitan critics of their own societies such as Henry James, Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound in their depictions of modernity obsessively presented rootless Jewish intellectuals as projections of what they most disliked and feared about their own situation.

And in response, several generations of Jewish American literary critics devoted their lives to containing, re-orienting and re-appropriating these writings in a larger project of associating the more positive aspects of modernity with themselves and with their community.

As the Jewish American critic Alfred Kazin wrote in 1949, “We cannot let them go nor can they let us go, for they imitate us, they are obviously fascinated by us,” and we in return are drawn not to modernist humanists “but precisely to the nasty ones.”"

Oxford Jewish students represent UK at International Chabad on Campus Shabbaton weekend in New York City

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 2:05:00 PM

The Oxford Chabad Society has organised for eight Jewish students from Oxford and London to represent the UK at the International Chabad on Campus Shabbaton weekend in New York City this week. The students will be amongst close to a thousand Jewish students from over 100 colleges throughout the United States, North America and Europe.

The UK group consists of mostly Oxford students, as well as students from London School of Economics and University College London, including one who is on the UCL Student Union board.

The students will spend Friday night Shabbat dinner with the family of Rabbi Chaim and Chani Miller, author of the Gutnick Torah commentary, and will join a huge gathering of students for a late Friday night social event and lively Farbrengen / Oneg.

The Shabbat afternoon programme will include multiple options of sessions led by leading scholars and thinkers on a variety of topics including the Jewish take on current events. A mega carnival will entertain on Saturday night with live music.

The students will stay in the Crown Heights neighbourhood of Brooklyn, NY, with hospitable families and there will be time for them to tour down-town Manhattan.

A highlight of the programme will be a visit to the late Lubavitcher Rebbe’s OBM resting place in Queens, where thousands customarily flock for a blessing when visiting NY, before retuning back to the UK in time for Monday afternoon classes.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of the Oxford Chabad Society, said ‘the Shabbaton is a high energy fun packed and stimulating weekend that helps cultivate and energise Jewish student leadership on hundreds of university campuses.’

To watch a video about this fantastic weekend, visit www.jewishweekend.org.

George Steiner lectures at the Oxford University Chabad Society on the ‘Rationality of the Holocaust’

Thu, 3 Nov 2011 5:06:00 AM

The Oxford University Chabad Society hosted last night the annual Perl Grunzweig memorial lecture by world renowned Professor George Steiner on the subject ‘North of the Future: Is it possible to speak intelligently of the Holocaust?’

The lecture took place at the Slager Jewish student centre in central Oxford in front of a capacity audience of around 120 students and faculty. All were keen to take advantage of this rare opportunity to hear Professor Steiner, currently Extraordinary Fellow at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge, formerly Professor of Comparative Literature and Fellow at the University of Oxford, and widely recognised as one of the greatest literary minds living today.

(Pictures taken by Joe Herman, Oxford)

The memorial lecture series was established by Professor Larry Wolff in memory of his mother, Holocaust survivor Perl Grunzweig, who was born in Vamesta, Hungary. Perl was deported to Auschwitz in June, 1944, with her family, and survived, despite having lost both her parents upon selection, as well as two younger brothers. A woman of enormous vitality and courage, Perl never lost her hope and belief and trust in G-d, the good within man and the beauty of nature.

Professor Steiner was welcomed by Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of the Oxford University Chabad Society, and introduced by the Society President, Oleg Giberstein of St Anthony’s college.

Professor Steiner's lecture centred on the question of the ‘singularity’ of the Holocaust. He asked what made the Holocaust unique amongst other atrocities that have taken place throughout history since ancient times, sometimes on a much larger scale, particularly during the twentieth century.

Emphasising that very few had predicted that the 20th century would bear witness to such mass killings and unspeakable horrors, Professor Steiner suggested that, with the enormous intellectual productivity of the enlightenment in Germany and the West, the 'civilised world' may have yearned for a more primitive form of expression.

Equally, argued Steiner, during the nineteenth century industrialization had to some extent succeeded in obliterating identity, turning people into machines, as alluded to in the premonitory commentaries of Engels.

This provoked a counter thesis identifying the uniqueness of the German people represented in Hitler’s view of the third Reich, whilst simultaneously setting the scene for the bureaucratic dehumanisation of the Jews.

The thrust of his argument was that the singularity of the Holocaust lies with its execution by highly intelligent and cultured members of an enlightened society, who listened to Schubert and read German philosophy in the evening, and killed men, women and children in the morning; the tortured cries of the Jews of Belgium, taken by train along tracks passing by the concert hall, were simply ignored as the audience continued to enjoy their music.

Professor Steiner quoted the book by Browning and Goldhagen who documented how 'ordinary' men were in a large part responsible for the brutality of the Holocaust.

Steiner suggested that this kind of enlightened evil is what makes the Holocaust singular, and that this particular combination cannot be explained rationally. He further argued that the Holocaust, like other massacres of horrific magnitude, cannot be adequately comprehended by the rational mind, quoting the unfortunately apposite comment of Josef Stalin that one death may be a tragedy, but a million is a statistic.

Ultimately, argued Steiner, it is not possible to speak rationally about the Holocaust. He quoted Primo Levi, who witnessed a prisoner in Auschwitz gasping for some water; when the prisoner was about to take a sip of water from a glass, the Nazi officer spilled it out on the ground. When the prisoner asked the question, with almost his last breath, ‘why?’, the Nazi answered ‘here there is no why.’

Steiner closed his lecture by wondering whether, despite the enormous amount of literature still being published on the Holocaust, the obsession will eventually end, and whether the active memory of 'never forget' will fade into a passive remembrance of things past.

He urged that every student search for ten names of people who died in the Holocaust and recite them every week to make sure their memory will not be forgotten.

George Steiner was joined at the lecture by his wife Professor Zara Steiner, who is a leading historian of Europe between the wars, and Emeritus Fellow of Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.

Chabad of Oxford hosted a Shabbat dinner in honur of First Jewish Lord Mayor of the City of Oxford in 900 years

Thu, 3 Nov 2011 5:03:00 AM

Chabad of Oxford hosted a special Shabbat Dinner last Friday night in honour of the first recorded Jewish Lord Mayor of the City of Oxford in almost 900 years, Cllr Elise Benjamin, who is also the City’s first Green Lord Mayor.

The Shabbat dinner, which was attended also by former Jewish Councilor of the Green Party, her husband, Craig Simons and daughter, was hosted at the Slager Chabad Jewish student centre in central Oxford.

The event was also attended by city dignitaries Cllr Dick Wolf and Cllr Matt Morton, in addition to close to about 80 Jewish students, faculty and community members.

The student president of the Oxford University Chabad Society, Oleg Giberstein, St Antony’s College, Oxford, congratulated the Lord Mayor on behalf of the Jewish students for her great achievement of becoming Lord Mayor, as well as recently the Sheriff of Oxford.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, warmly welcomed the Lord Mayor to the Chabad Society, and said it’s an honour to host this historic event at the Chabad Society, as it marks a milestone in the revival of Jewish life in Oxford, of which the Chabad Society has played an important role, including the building of the first Mikvah in Oxford in 800 years.

The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Cllr Elise Benjamin, also entitled the First Citizen of the City of Oxford, spoke to the Jewish students about the international role of the Lord Mayor and her pride of the the Jewish connection to the city going back to medieval times.

The list of Lord Mayors of Oxford stretch in an unbroken line to 1122 when there was still a substantial and prominent Jewish community in Oxford until their expulsion in 1290. They resided on Great Jewry Street, currently known as St Aldate’s, in the centre of the then walled city, only five minutes walk from where the Shabbat dinner took place.

The Lord Mayor Cllr Benjamin’s connection to the Chabad Society goes back ten years, when she was instrumental in helping Chabad of Oxford establish the tradition of having a 12 ft Chanukah Menorah in the centre of the city, which has now become an annual event in the city attended by hundreds of locals and dignitaries.

Fellow Oxford City Councillor, Mr. David Williams, called the Shabbat dinner ‘a night for celebration and thanksgiving’ and said “I agree completely that this is a very historic moment for the Jewish Community in Oxford and one that they take great pride in. It is a symbol that the Jewish community in Oxford is respected and on a par with all other religions and faith communities in our tolerant and multicultural City.”

The Shabbat dinner was partly kindly sponsored by ‘Oxfordshire Ales’.

Over 1200 Celebrate High Holidays with Chabad on Campus UK

Thu, 6 Oct 2011 6:33:00 PM

Many traditional Jewish students head home for Rosh Hashanah to spend this special holiday tucked away with family leaving the forgotten few wondering where to go and what to do for the High Holidays on campus.

“I had no idea where I could go for Rosh Hashanah” said Adam Applebaum from Edge Hill University, a short 30 min train ride from Chabad on Campus serving Liverpool’s universities, directed by Rabbi Shmuli and Tzivia Brown. Adam contacted the Rabbi, “Everything went far better than I could possibly have imagined. I went into the new year knowing that a wonderful Chabad campus rabbi and community is within reach who will be there to solve any issues, however short notice or difficult they may be”.

Other Chabad Houses across the country saw record attendance with 100 at Cambridge Chabad’s Rosh Hashanah morning service, a total of 120 attending Nottingham’s meals, 70 at Bristol’s Chabad, 75 at Shoreditch and 150 who celebrated with Oxford Chabad over the course of the festival.

Chabad at Edinburgh University had to rent external space at a local Hotel in order to host the services and dinner for 60 on the first night.

History was made at Imperial College with the first ever High Holiday services held on campus at the Union Dining Hall with over 65 in attendance on the 1st night.

"The soaring number of Jewish students attending Rosh Hashana at Chabad is a great success for the beginning of the school year, as well as the huge number of sign ups at Chabad Society stalls at Fresher’s Fairs across the country" says Rabbi Eli Brackman chairman of Chabad on Campus UK, with fourteen branches on campuses across the UK.'

"Jewish students appreciate the open and welcoming atmosphere of Chabad Houses on campus providing a vibrant and warm Jewish home away from home for all Jewish students while at university. We look forward to a successful year ahead”.

On another front; students from Oxford, Leeds, Imperial College and more volunteered to join the Rabbis in visiting hospital patients and others who did not have the opportunity to celebrate.

“Thank you” wrote Marika Henriques, a holocaust survivor living close to Imperial College “I actually cried at the sound of the Shofar in my living room”. An 87 year old at Leeds General Infirmary commented, "your visit and the blowing of the Shofar made it feel like it's Yom Tov even here".

All in all a total of over 1200 celebrated with Chabad on Campus UK across the country.

For more information on Chabad on Campus UK please visit www.ChabadonCampus.org.uk

Chabad on Campus UK completes network with opening of new student centre at Birmingham University

Thu, 8 Sep 2011 2:48:00 PM

Chabad on Campus UK completes network with opening of new student centre at Birmingham University

Chabad on Campus UK is proud to announce the opening of a new centre dedicated to serving the Jewish students in Birmingham, England, the second largest city in the UK.

Rabbi Yossi and Rivki Cheruff intend to move to Birmingham in time for the new university term and look forward to expanding the provisions for Jewish students at Birmingham University and other institutions of higher education in Birmingham, serving one of the most substantial Jewish student populations in the UK.

The new centre aims to serve the Jewish students with Friday night Shabbat and festival dinners, stimulating and creative educational and social events and a home away from home for Jewish students from all backgrounds.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, Chairman of Chabad on Campus UK and Director of Chabad of Oxford, said ‘this new centre will serve as an important component in reaching out to more Jewish students at this leading UK university, with the aim of helping, together with other Jewish organisations, stem the tide of growing assimilation on UK campuses’.

Mr. Neil Cooper, Chairman of the Birmingham Jewish Chaplaincy Board, said, ‘we are very happy to work and cooperate with the new Chabad Rabbi on campus and look forward to mutual benefit for both organisations’.

This expansion follows the opening of centres at Manchester and Liverpool universities over the last year and will complete the network of Chabad on Campus UK with fourteen centres in total, situated on every major UK campus where there are considerable numbers of Jewish students, from Edinburgh to Brighton.

Other Chabad on Campus UK student centres include: Manchester, Leeds, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, Brighton, Bloomsbury, South Kensington, East End of London campuses and South London campuses

For more information, email info@chabadoncampus.org.uk / www.chabadoncampus.org.uk

Lord Levy urges more Jewish Pride for Anglo Jewry

Thu, 8 Sep 2011 2:23:00 PM

Lord Levy urges more Jewish Pride for Anglo Jewry

Lord Michael Levy, former Prime Minister Tony Blair's special envoy to the Middle East, addressed 200 people at an Oxford Chabad Society alumni event in conjunction with Chabad on Campus UK in June at Bevis Marks synagogue on the subject of Jewish pride.

His message to the Jewish students and community was that as he was able to balance his Jewish identity and observance without compromise with the high profile life as personal envoy of the Prime Minister of the UK, others may be inspired to also.

He revealed how he used to spend Shabbat numerous times at the private suite in Downing Street with Tony Blair and Lady Levy’s home baked Kosher Shabbat cooking was always a favourite to the Prime Minister. He also said that every Embassy round the world knew his Kosher dietary requirements. President Assad once had to bring in Kosher food from Turkey for him. Even the Saudi Ambassador once held a dinner in his honour and made sure it was catered according to his Kosher requirements.

Lord Levy prided himself that many Ambassadors joined him for Shabbat dinner in his private home. He said he had the Palestinian President ‘Abu Mazen’ and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert joining him together for Shabbat dinner at his home and they both were wearing a Yarmulkah.

He told the audience that whenever he would travel round the world on behalf of Tony Blair, whether to Damascus, Gulf or Cairo, he would always take with him his Talit and Tefilin and would make sure to pray every morning. He once had to travel to meet the President of Kazakhstan on behalf of Blair and as it was in the Hebrew month of Elul before the Jewish New Year, he took with him not only his Talit and Tefilin but also his Shofar.

As the British Ambassador’s wife just gave birth, they was put him up in a hotel with security round the clock outside his room. In the morning he began to pray and at the end of the prayers he proceeded to blow the Shofar, according to the Jewish tradition. Lord Levy related how the security were alarmed and ran to call for the Foreign Office staff to see if everything was okay, as there were strange noises coming out of Lord Levy’s room. They thought the Prime Minster’s personal envoy must be Meshugah!

His profound message was that Jews should be proud who they are and never hide away from it. If it’s good enough for the Prime Minister of the UK to have Kosher food served at the private suite at Downing Street, if it’s good enough to have the Saudi Ambassador order Kosher food for him, one should always maintain one’s Judaism and remember one’s Jewish identity wherever one finds oneself.

He concluded his talk by thanking the work of the Oxford Chabad Society and Chabad on Campus UK and their supporters with helping make sure that Jewish students are instilled with a Jewish pride. Chazak v’ematz!