Linda

Answer was Akeida the Hebrew name for the story of Isaac being bound to the altar and nearly sacrificed. Akeida means 'bound' or 'binding'. Leave the rest for you.

Round Sedra Quiz

Some time ago I was listening to the Round Britain Quiz on Radio 4 when I heard a question that was sent in by listener named Kieth Sayliss. Well the name sort of rang a bell and when I met up with him he confirmed it was THE Kieth Sayliss. So I thought if he can do it so can I just the subject matter might be a little different. This set me thinking , what about a Round Sedra Quiz with cryptic questions on the sedra of the week? I tried it out last week in shul and someone suggested that the clue should go on the web so here goes with a question on the sedra of Vayera.

'He will laugh on the New Year but not a terrorist group because neither il nor q'

Hmm!

A short clip of Denis Avey's talk.

One of my hobbies is photography and I can’t resist posting a picture or two. This one is of the Ladybower as I drove home from Manchester one sunny day in June. I had to stop and take a few shots as the scenery looked stunning.

Recently I passed by the same spot and was very surprised at how low the water level was. Has someone been building lots of Mikvehs round there or something, where has all the water gone?

Cook Off

An evening was held in June in support of Keren Chanah, a fund that helps Jewish girls to attend Seminaries. My father-in-law and his colleague Rabbi Mordechai Sufrin have been running this for years and every now and then we have helped raise some money. This time my daughter Chayala aided by her sisters all powerhouses of energy decided on a ‘Cook Off’. I’ve never heard of the term before but I soon found out what it meant. Four candidates with culinary skills were asked to make a soup in front of an audience showing ingredients and how the soup is created. New saucepans where kindly donated by David Grunwerg and on the night Dr Alan Anderson, Dr Philip Rubin Mrs Carol Cahm and my mother-in-law Mrs Ruthie Simon duly performed in front of a very respectable crowd. While the soups were cooking Rabbi Sufrin gave a talk praising the role of women in creating a Jewish home. When the soups were ready we were able to sample each one and vote. It’s not important who’s soup got the most votes what is important is that we all had a evening of fun and a nice sum was raised for this important cause. Yasher koach to the ‘soupists’.

Apologies

It’s been some time since I posted any articles on the blog and my apologies to readers. I have not been in the best of health recently and lacked a bit of enthusiasm to get writing. However I am almost back on form so I will continue where I left off. I personally see this blog as a sort of diary of our community so since there are events and stories that have happened some time ago I still want them to be included.

Have you ever met a hero?

I don’t mean just a hero I mean a real hero, someone who of his or her own choice decided to do something extraordinarily brave in order to help another person. Well if you were at the CCJ meeting several Sundays ago and listened to the story of Denis Avey you would have come away thinking ‘I met a hero’.

This man was captured by the Germans during the 2^nd World War and as a POW he was sent to work for Farben close to Auschwitz, Birkenau. While working there he came in contact with Jewish prisoners who were inmates at the notorious death/concentration camp and he actually swapped clothes with one of the prisoners who was of similar build and features so that he could see for himself what as actually going on in there. His friend would also benefit from the better food and conditions (not difficult as the conditions in Auschwitz were beyond anything one could imagine) where Denis stayed. Needless to say that in doing so he was putting his own life at enormous risk. He described as best as he could some of the evil, vicious and inhumane things that he saw there; things that we have all read about or seen pictures thereof but there is something arresting about hearing it from a firsthand witness. He kept the entire audience completely captivated as he described his war experiences some with a touch of humour culminating with his capture and subsequent interment. When trying to sum up Auschwitz his words were “if I spent two weeks using every adjective available I could not even begin to describe how evil it was!” Recently his heroism has been recognised and he has been awarded the British Heroes of the Holocaust Medal (pictured here). On that occasion he met and related his experiences to the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Denis is an elderly man now but he still radiates courage and steely determination as he relates his story, the same determination that made him take such enormous risks to help others. He lives with his experiences every day of his life and admits that this has sometimes made him a difficult person to be with but evidently his moral fortitude and strength of character have sustained him.

From time to time one asks oneself, what would I do if faced with a great challenge? Well this is one man who can tell you what he actually did. To me he is a hero.