In conversation: Avital Raz

"If we think of ourselves as victims all the time, how can we be aggressors? I wanted to show that we’re both”

In 2013, Jerusalem-born Avital Raz released The Edinburgh Surprise, a song about a one-night stand between an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man. Stemming from this and the controversy it caused, My Jerusalem is her own story. Raz takes the audience through moments of her upbringing in tumultuous 1980s Israel and presents her nuanced exploration of the politics of division, using live music, projected images and storytelling. Although the national tour of the show was cut short due to Covid, it has now been filmed before a live audience in Manchester and is available to stream until Saturday 7 August. The documentary, Your Jerusalem, in which she interviews Israelis, Palestinians and people in the UK about the issues raised in the show, is also available to stream.

JR’s Judi Herman has watched both films and The Edinburgh Surprise and spoke to Raz about her Jerusalem and the experiences that led her to make My Jerusalem, a show that Judi hails as “personal, heartfelt, controversial, hard hitting and beautiful”.

My Jerusalem and Your Jerusalem are available to stream via Applecart Arts until Saturday 7 August and Sunday 8 August, respectively.

Warning: This podcast contains references to child abuse, which forms a small part of the narrative in My Jerusalem and The Edinburgh Surprise contains explicit sexual content.

In conversation: Ashley Blaker

"The children really are great in it – hopefully partly because I wrote things they really said"

Orthodox Jewish Comedian Ashley Blaker has built up a great reputation, both live on the comedy circuit and on the airwaves. His landmark show, Ashley Blaker’s Goyish Guide to Judaism on BBC Radio 4, gives millions of listeners a window into his world in the Orthodox community.

Now, in the four-part radio series Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children, he takes us into his household in a groundbreaking new comedy show. With a mix of stand-up and observational documentary, all recorded in the Blakers’ unusual home with the voices of his real family, the show tackles the parenting of six children, adoption and raising children with special needs – two autistic sons and an adopted daughter with Down's Syndrome. So how does he find the funny under his own roof? The comedian shares some home truths with JR’s arts editor Judi Herman, who also gets a sneak preview of an episode about the ins and outs of adoption.

Ashley Blaker: 6.5 Children runs until Friday 30 July on BBC Radio 4 at 11.30am. After it airs, each episode will be available to stream on BBC Sounds. bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000xmz7
Blaker will tour his brand new stand-up show, inspired by the radio series, from May 2022. ashleyblaker.com

Embracing tikkun olam

Judi Herman shares the moment that kickstarted her litter-collecting crusade

It’s November 2020. I’m done wringing my hands and raging at the appalling volume of litter ‘decorating’ our streets, grass verges and hedgerows that offends me daily on our lockdown walks. My husband Steve has bought me a litter-picker for our wedding anniversary (!) and I take on the role of joint leader with him of the new ‘litterati’. Steve begins by finding some wonderfully official-looking “No litter" notices online, printing and fixing them to the fence at the entrance to an alleyway that is often ankle deep in rubbish; meanwhile, I deftly clear the alley with my new weapon. Now our daily walks have a new purpose. We still look at the stars, but we cast our eyes downwards to the gutters too, to clear them from bottles and cans, baby wipes and takeaway boxes – and facemasks – this last a new addition to the detritus that folk seem to have lost the will to bin or take home.

On a walk round suburbia we pick up everything we spot – and I’m gratified to say that, though there’s still plenty to fill a bag, the volume has dropped substantially, especially down our alley, and we are often greeted by local residents who want to thank us.

There are folk litter-picking countrywide of course, but now we are reaching out to JR readers and asking anyone who wants to join us to get in touch and let’s try to coordinate our efforts. Just think, if everyone took responsibility for the pavement, verge or road outside their home, it would be pretty well job done! The beautiful Jewish precept of tikkun olam (repairing the world) surely encompasses keeping our own local area free of polluting debris.

Our grandchildren (pictured) Alys, 8, and Dylan, 5, are now really into competitive – and cooperative – litter-picking. So now, ahead of the Keep Britain Tidy campaign’s Great Spring Clean (28 May-13 Jun), join us as the kids grab the litter-pickers (and microphone) at a local beauty spot; plus Steve and me on a sunset walk.

By Judi Herman

Considering getting your own littler-picker? Visit keepbritaintidy.org to find ways of getting involved, and check with your local council, as you may be able to apply for a picker, bags and even a high-viz jacket.

L’dor v’dor: an intergenerational experience of the Holocaust

"She gave me birth twice; once when she bore me and then when she gave me freedom"

Eva (right) with her sisters Esther and Myriam, 1935

As she approached her 90th birthday, Holocaust survivor Eva Mendelsson decided it was time to share the precious gift that her mother Sylvia Cohn gave her for her 11th birthday, back in 1942 – a little exercise book filled with her own poetry. Sylvia was a gifted poet who bore witness in her verse to the good times, and the increasingly more terrible times, she was living through. The poems she sent to Eva and her sister Myriam in the Jewish children’s home in France, came directly from the internment camp where she was imprisoned and were only a portion of her prolific writings. Sylvia did not survive, but after the war, Eva and Myriam were able to join their father Eduard in England. This touching and gripping story was broadcast on the BBC World Service in March – The Birthday Gift that Survived the Holocaust – and is available to stream online for over a year.

Eva Mendelsson holding Sylvia’s poetry book; with a photo of herself as girl; and with the Torah mantle (cover) she made to commemorate Esther and Sylvia

Sylvia and the girls

Sylvia and Eduard Cohn

The last photo taken of Sylvia Cohn, Rivesaltes camp, 1941

Now, at last, Eva has been able to get her mother’s poetry translated into English to share with the world. JR's arts editor Judi Herman spoke to her, along with her son Jonny, to discover more about Sylvia’s life and legacy, Eva’s life after the war, and insights into what it's like to be a survivor and the child of a survivor.

Sylvia’s poems are read by Rabbi Lea Mühlstein and translated by Marion Godfrey. Hashiveinu is sung by Ruth Colin and Jo Rose at The Ark Synagogue, Northwood & Pinner.

Meet Heroines of the Holocaust in new theatre online from Brundibár

“They describe themselves as ‘two ordinary lasses’, so the catchphrase of the piece is ‘two ordinary girls who do extraordinary things’”

(L-R) Brundibár founder Alexandra Raikhlina; Sarah Boulter, who plays Ida Cooke; director Eilish Stout-Cairns

The full programme of this year’s Brundibár Arts Festival, which is held each January to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day, has had to be postponed until 2022, but happily one theatre event is going ahead online: The Cook Sisters – Heroines of the Holocaust.

Director Eilish Stout-Cairns and actor Sarah Boulter talk to JR’s Judi Herman about the play, which streams on Monday and tells the intriguing story of a pair of unassuming opera-loving spinster sisters from Sunderland, honoured as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Yad Vashem.

Under the pretext of attending opera performances in Germany and Austria, Ida and Louise Cook risked their lives to rescue 29 Jews from Nazi Germany. That Ida also wrote over 100 Mills & Boon novels under her pen name Mary Burchell is just the icing on the cake in this gripping tale. Discover their story in this new play, co-devised by Lewis Matthews, director Stout-Cairns and her cast, Boulter and Natalie Simone, who have also recorded an extract that forms part of the podcast.

Ida and Louise Cook

Judi also speaks to the festival’s founder and artistic director Alexandra Raikhlina about the resonance the play has for the festival, as well as the e-book Five Composers Who Disappeared by David Mulraney, which celebrates five composers lost in the Holocaust and is released Monday 25 January by Brundibár.

The Cook Sisters: Heroines of the Holocaust streams Monday 25 January. 7pm. FREE. ONLINE. brundibarartsfestival.com. The performance will be streamed live from Gosforth Civic Theatre on the Brundibár Arts Festival YouTube page, where it will be available to watch afterwards for those who miss it live.

Five Composers Who Disappeared is published as an e-book Monday 25 January. Visit brundibarartsfestival.com for further information.

In conversation: Alice Hamilton

“There’s exploration of power struggles, partnership, betrayal… but fundamentally it’s about the dynamic between these two men”

L-R: Shane Zaza, Alice Hamilton, Alec Newman © Helen Maybanks

Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter, which had its premiere in 1960 at Hampstead Theatre as part of the theatre’s opening season, bears the signature hallmarks of the ‘Pinteresque’. An atmosphere of menace builds around Ben and Gus, two hitmen holed up in a basement, jockeying for position as they await instructions for their imminent next job; meanwhile they receive strange messages via the dumb waiter.

This early masterpiece from Pinter was last seen in London as part Jamie Lloyd’s ‘Pinter at the Pinter’ season in 2018. This 60th anniversary stand-alone production is directed by Alice Hamilton and stars Alec Newman and Shane Zaza as Ben and Gus. Hamilton spoke to JR’s Arts Editor Judi Herman about the challenges and fascination of working with Pinter, including the new resonances this drama has about being trapped.

The Dumb Waiter runs Monday 4 – Saturday 30 January 2021. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Thu & Sat only). £18-£37, £20-£25 seniors (matinees only), £10-£15 students/under-30s. Hampstead Theatre, NW3 3EU. hampsteadtheatre.com/the-dumb-waiter

Read our review of The Dumb Waiter on the JR blog.

In conversation: Noemie Lopian

"I want to teach people about humanity, my passion is to educate, to prevent extremism"

Noemie Lopian is the daughter of Holocaust survivors Dr Ernst Israel Bornstein and Renee Bornstein. Noemie was brought up first in Germany and then from the age of 13 in Manchester, England. The mother of four daughters, she qualified as a GP and for the last few years has dedicated her time to educating and commemorating the Holocaust, continuing the legacy of her parents. She has translated her late father Ernst’s memoirs into a book called The Long Night, the story of his sufferings as a teenager in a series of concentration camps, which has featured on TV, in print and as an animation. Her mother shared with her only more recently the story of her terrifying childhood experiences trying to evade the Nazis occupying her native France.

Now Noemie is also able to tell Renee's story in an extraordinarily immediate way, thanks to broadcaster and lawyer Robert Rinder, whose new two-part documentary for the BBC helps Jewish families discover the full truth about what happened to their relatives during the Holocaust. Part one of My Family, the Holocaust and Me, which features both Noemie and her mother Renee, airs tonight, the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht. Noemie tells JR’s Judi Herman more about what drives her in her inspirational work – and what happened when she and her mother went to France.

My Family, the Holocaust and Me with Robert Rinder airs Monday 9 & Monday 16 November. 9pm. FREE. BBC One & ONLINE. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000pbwk

Find out more about Noemie Lopian’s work at holocaustmatters.org

In conversation: Little Wars

"There's a great deal of wit and laughter and joy in all of them, but they are all survivors in their own way”

Next week the Union Theatre plays virtual host for the most fantastical what-if dinner party imaginable and everyone's invited. Steven Carl McCasland’s female-fuelled drama Little Wars, streamed online, unites iconic witty literary figureheads Gertrude Stein, Alice B Toklas, Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman and Agatha Christie, plus anti-fascist freedom fighter Muriel Gardiner. In a comedy that truly resonates today, these women of all creeds (Jewish, gay, straight…) find themselves round a boozy dinner table in wartime France as the Nazis invade. Ahead of the release, JR's Arts Editor Judi Herman spoke to playwright McCasland, plus cast members Linda Bassett (Stein) and Debbie Chazen (Parker) about the fascination of these women – for the audience as much as the playwright and cast – as wits, their loves and rivalries, and their feistiness and sheer bravery in very different times to ours.

L-R: Debbie Chazen, Steven Carl McCasland, Linda Bassett

Other members of Little Wars' star-studded cast include Juliet Stevenson (Hellman), Catherine Russell (Toklas), Sophie Thompson (Christie) and Sarah Solemani (Gardiner). Funds raised will be donated to the charity Women for Refugee Women.

Little Wars streams until Thursday 3 December. £12. ONLINE. www.littlewars.co.uk

Read our review of Little Wars on the JR blog.

In conversation: Michael Etherton

"You see it up close and you see the emotional input the guys put in to get the sounds you hear"

With their live performances cancelled, members of Mosaic Voices (New West End Synagogue’s resident choir) have been working hard to continue to bring you their unique music. Released earlier during the pandemic are four music videos written and recorded at various stages of the lockdown, featuring Yiddish lullaby ‘Rozhinkes mit Mandlen’, an ‘Over the Rainbow' rendition of the hymn ‘Adon Olam’, a lively ‘Yism'chu’, and a musical setting of Psalm 23 ('The Lord is My Shepherd'). All pieces were either composed or arranged by Benjamin Till, composer in residence. Whether they are arranged for singing a capella or with instrumental accompaniment, they all have in common just a small ensemble of voices. The group's founder and musical director, Michael Etherton, spoke to JR's arts editor Judi Herman about the making of these beautiful, inspiring and life enhancing musical films.

English translation of the original Yiddish ‘Rozhinkes mit Mandlen’:
In the Temple,
In a corner of a room,
Sits the widowed daughter of Zion, alone.
She rocks her only son, Yidele, to sleep
With a sweet lullaby.
Ai-lu-lu

Under Yidele's cradle
Stands a small white goat.
The goat travelled to sell his wares
This will be Yidele's calling, too.
Trading in raisins and almonds.
Sleep, Yidele, sleep.

Since the interview, Mosaic Voices have released more videos, including 'Shomer Yisrael' ('Guardian of Israel'), 'Avinu Malkeinu' ('Our Father, Our King') and 'Feed the Birds', from Mary Poppins. All videos are available to watch on their YouTube channel.

Audio tour: Hebrew Manuscripts

"You see with manuscript illustration how much exchange there was between Jewish communities and their host communities"

Ahead of the opening of the British Library's new exhibition, Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the Written Word, JR’s Arts Editor Judi Herman explored it via a virtual private view. There she met Cassy Sachar, librarian at Leo Baeck College, so the pair got together online later to share their thoughts on this stunning and deeply rewarding display of rarely-seen treasures from as far back as the 10th century. Pieces come from Europe and North Africa, through to the Middle East and China, taking viewers on a "journey beyond the Bible to discover the history, culture and traditions of Jewish people from all corners of the world through the ages". The collection spans science, religion, law, music, philosophy, magic, alchemy and Kabbalah, and explores the relationships between Jews and their neighbours in the communities in which they lived.

Photos by David Jensen

Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the Written Word runs Tuesday 1 September 2020 – Sunday 11 April 2021. British Library, NW1 2DB. www.bl.uk