Magical Jewish Morocco: A report from Eveleen Habib, one of JR’s Purim tour members

JR Tour - Morocco - Cemetery - Joan 2

Twenty-six tired yet exhilarated travellers sat down together for supper in a Riad in Marrakech – it was the last night of a wonderful trip and they all wanted to spend that evening together, despite the opportunity to sample the night life in this north African town. How well our group, mainly strangers, had grown to like one another and enjoy the times we spent discussing the day’s activities.

The trip focussed on the Jewish Morocco that still remains – the majority of the community having left in 1948 and 1967. Our guide, Rafi El Maleh, was an important part of this well-organised trip. We learned so much about the history, politics and current situation of both the Jewish and Arab population. There seemed to be nothing he did not know. We laughed at the number of palaces owned by the king (whom Rafi had met more than once in the course of his work on Jewish heritage) and we were moved by so many of his stories about individuals he knew and helped. We admired the research, hard work and passion he had devoted to collecting and conserving Jewish artefacts and whole synagogues, throughout the country of his birth.

There was never a dull moment and we drank in every bit of information that he gave us, it might have been about the extraordinary cemetery we visited in the Fes Mellah (pictured above), or one of the many synagogues that we visited. There were once 11 in the Mellah of Meknes and we met one of the last Jews who still prays in this Imperial City. We visited the royal stables and granary, once home to 15,000 Arabian horses, built by Moulay Ismail, who lived in magnificence but subjected his city to terror. We walked, climbed, and sometimes struggled with, the cobbled narrow streets and the traffic, especially in Marrakech where Rafi literally stopped the traffic for us to cross the roads. In Volubilis the hardier individuals climbed in the sun up a steep road to see the remarkably well-preserved Roman city whilst the others enjoyed mint tea in the small café below.

JR Tour - Morocco - Volubilis arch JL

Volubilis arch

The first two evenings we ate in the attractive Jewish Maimonide club in Fes and enjoyed couscous with meat, vegetables, chicken and an array of the popular and delicious cooked salads in small dishes set out in front of us.  The food in general was lavish and good; when not eating kosher food, we were always able to eat fish and vegetarian food so everyone’s needs were met.

JR Tour - Morocco - KT.Dinner Fez, March 1st

One special experience was meeting four young Moroccan Muslims, founders  of the Mimouna Association, set up to tell their contemporaries about the Jewish heritage of their country that few knew anything about. We ate together at a restaurant on the coast in Rabat and had the opportunity of conversing with them individually. They spoke about their initiatives; organising Hebrew lessons and days of Jewish culture; running the first Holocaust Conference in the Arab world and paying a group visit to Israel. We were impressed by their enthusiasm and eloquence. It seemed as if they are set to be among their country’s elite. It will be a great boost to interfaith relations if they achieve this.

JR Tour - Morocco - Laziza table

With Laziza Dalil of The Mimouna Society

We visited so many places, each one a treat – the lavish mausoleum built to honour King Mohammed V in Rabat; its Kasbah where we had Moroccan tea and almond cookies;  Casablanca’s Jewish Museum with its rich display of Moroccan Jewish artefacts, and its Jewish quarter with kosher bakers, the street of seven shuls and the beautiful Beth el Synagogue.

JR Tour - Morocco - Rafi and Haman's eye - Malcolm

 Rafi with Haman's eye bread

And Purim: celebrated differently but enjoyably. Not as noisy in synagogue as I am used to, but the same notes and words read out to remind us of the near-destruction of the Jewish people – appropriate in an Arab country, albeit one currently well-disposed to its small Jewish population. The group joined the local community in unending dinner and entertainment. We threw ourselves into the atmosphere of the occasion – fascinated by the bread with hard boiled eggs, representing Haman’s eyes, baked inside (pictured above).

JR Tour - Morocco - Purim table - Joan

Purim party

And then the final days in Marrakech where we stayed in the Ksar Anika Riad in the aptly named Rue des Juifs, an oasis of quiet and beauty with a pool in the courtyard and hanging plants. We walked to see the Bahai Palace and in the medina visited a herbalist with his potions, spices and cures for everything. Then to prepare for Shabbat and a wonderful long table set out as if for a wedding with delicious food cooked by Madame Ohayon, wife of Isaac Ohayon who had restored, and was cantor for, the Mellah synagogue some of us visited the next morning.  After a Moroccan cholent lunch we visited the Majorelle Gardens, once owned by Yves St Laurent and then gifted to the town for the benefit of those who love quiet, gardens and water – truly lovely.

JR Tour - Morocco - Last lunch at Ksar Anika - JL

Last lunch at Ksar Anika

And there was much else in this wonderful trip, well-planned, delightful company, all our needs considered. I cannot wait to book another tour with Jewish Renaissance.

By Eveleen Habib

Visit the JR website to see the Magical Jewish Morocco 2016 tour itinerary.

Violinist Irmina Trynkos dazzles at the second JR salon

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

A packed crowd of around 60 people attended the second JR salon event this week at Lauderdale House in Highgate. They were there to hear the virtuoso talents of violinist Irmina Trynkos, as well as the sparkling sounds of pianist Marco Fatichenti. And they weren’t disappointed.

Dressed in a jewelled, emerald green evening gown, Irmina treated the audience to a programme full of energy and passion. Irmina opened proceedings with the sweeping Sonata for Violin and Piano in D Minor No.3 Op.108, by Johannes Brahms, followed by a piece by the relatively unknown Polish-German Jewish composer Ignatz Waghalter – his Sonata for Violin and Piano in F Minor Op.5.

Ernest Bloch’s Baal Shem Nigun and George Gershwin’s sprightly Prelude No.1 followed, as well as the theme by John Williams from Shindler’s List, which Irmina played in melancholy and moving style. The concert ended with the quirky gypsy sounds of Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane, played with terrific speed and verve by both violinist and pianist.

The music was interspersed with some background to the composers provided by the warm and engaging broadcaster Rodney Greenberg, who was the presenter for the evening. He and Irmina took time to discuss Waghalter's farewell – and return – to Germany, his fall from the public consciousness and how he made the wrong move of staying in New York rather than LA, as he might have better developed his career in Hollywood. She has taken on the task of reviving his little known works, along with other ‘forgotten’ composers.

The music was followed by drinks and canapés. The elegant, yet intimate, surrounds of Lauderdale House provided the perfect backdrop for the event and we hope to continue our salon series soon.

To find out more about Irmina Trynkos, read our article about her.

By Rebecca Taylor

Photos © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

JR Salon, 10/03/14 © Charlotte Mayhew

Visit facebook.com/JewishRenaissance for more photos.

JR OutLoud: Judi Herman speaks to the cast of The 2000 Year Old Man and offers listeners a sneak preview of the show

The hotly anticipated rebirth of the legendary comedy shtick is nigh! Mel Brook’s comedy tour de force as the oldest man in the world (Jewish, Yiddish accent), in improvised interviews with ‘TV reporter’ Carl Reiner, subsequently made into a collection of best-seller albums is about to take to the stage. This month, Canadian-born actor, writer and voice-over artist Kerry Shale, together with the British comedian, producer and writer Chris Neill are bringing The 2000 Year Old Man to JW3 in a verbatim performance where the actors wear earbuds and copy the edited recordings word-for-word, intonation-for-intonation.

Judi Herman has been following the continuing story and was ‘thrilled and delighted’* to get a sneak preview for Jewish Renaissance and to talk to the brand new double act of Shale and Neill. Hear the podcast above or download it for later listening.

*see the show to find out where this quote fits in!

The 2000 Year Old Man runs from Monday 9 - Sunday 22 March. 8pm. £6.50-£12.50. JW3, 341-351 Finchley Rd, NW3 6ET; 020 7433 8988. www.jw3.org.uk

Review: The Angry Boater – Joel Sanders nitpicks his way through a new nautical solo show

 

Joel Sanders is angry. This could be down to the fact his parents went against their Jewish-ness and sent him to a Christian school. Perhaps it’s due to his high blood pressure, which he makes a point of taking on stage. Or maybe it’s because living the life of Riley on London’s canalways isn’t as relaxing as the comedian thought it would be.

Born and raised Jew-ish – the laidback kind that eat “circumcised pigs” – in Ruislip, Sanders has remained loyal to our busy capital. Apart from the few years he spent in America, which he’ll be sure to vent to you about in the show. The 40-something comic once taught English at northwest London’s Haydon School, before devoting all his time to the Comedy Bunker club, also in Ruislip. Then one day the stress of city life became too much and, against his father’s advice – “Jews don’t live on boats” – Sanders bought a boat.

Split into two 40-minute halves, The Angry Boater is loaded with absurd anecdotes. Have you ever been shouted at for putting rubbish in a bin? Sanders has. How about being ignored by a coal-toting Frenchman? Because Sanders has checked that one off too. In fact some of his stories are so laughable that they seem unreal, until you notice fellow boaters in the audience grinning and nodding in agreement.

Like many pro funnymen, Sanders is affable and unassuming, dressed simply in a plain black t-shirt and jeans. He looks a bit like a dad and has a habit of waffling on like one too, but the wait for his punchlines is always worth it. And they’re not all nautical either. Sanders weaves in enough general gripes to keep us land-dwellers happy. After all, you need only be human to understand just how frustrating a trip to Homebase can get. And while these stressful encounters may be pushing Sanders’ blood pressure to new heights, his accounts of them are raising laughs.

By Danielle Goldstein

The Angry Boater runs every Tuesday until 17 March. 7.30pm. £10, £7 adv. The Bargehouse, 46a De Beauvoir Crescent, N1 5RY. www.angryboater.com

Review: A View from the Bridge – Ivo van Hove's moving and powerful production of Arthur Miller's shattering drama

It’s hard to imagine a more powerful – or more iconoclastic – production of Arthur Miller’s shattering meditation on family relationships gone bad and immigrants trying to make good in 1950s New York. But director Ivo van Hove comes close.

I use the word iconoclastic because more conventional productions evoke that specific 1950s setting, although they are using the specific to also evoke the general. In van Hove’s stripped down production – on designer Jan Versweyveld’s rectangular arena – the events of the play are as if under a microscope, focused by Michael Gould’s fine portrayal of lawyer/Greek Chorus Alfieri so that we the audience may observe them with growing incredulity and horror. There is an eerie timeless quality to this setting, which throws into relief the contemporary resonances of the illegal immigrants’ plight and desperation all too clearly.

Italian-American made good protagonist, Eddie Carbone (Mark Strong), reluctantly takes in his wife Beatrice’s (Nicola Walker) relatives from Sicily. Working men have been driven to leave their wives and families for years at a time because of a lack of work in the depression on their island. These illegal immigrants live with the fear of being discovered, though "shopping" your countrymen to the police is likely to bring down a worse fate on the whistle-blower. The search for a better life, the willingness to work all hours, to face up to separation from loved ones and to the pain of longing for them, applies to the Jews who made their painful way from the pogroms and persecution of Europe and to successive generations of economic migrants from Africa and Asia to Europe and the Americas as much as to these Italians.

As it becomes apparent that the close affectionate relationship between Eddie and Catherine (Phoebe Fox), the niece he has raised as his daughter after his wife’s sister’s death is much too close for comfort on his part, and his affection becomes aggressively possessive and even abusive. Again the play becomes chillingly timely – and timeless. His not so latent homophobia, accusing the newly-arrived Rodolpho (Luke Norris) of being a pretty-boy homosexual is certainly of its time, yet still contemporary.

Timeless though the play and production may be, the actors manage to vividly evoke the 1950s, even in the plainest of costumes (by An d’Huys) and barefoot too. You can visualise Strong’s powerful Eddie working on the docks as a longshoreman, then at home as a terrifyingly insistent and intense character. He does not care who sympathises with him; yet the audience watches his self-destruction with horrified incredulity, channelled by Alfieri’s own impotence to reason with this man so out of control.

Catherine is performed vibrantly by Fox, who sets the stage aglow; first leaping into her uncle’s arms, shining with excitement about her first job, and then glowering with determination and anger as he places obstacles in her path to marriage with her young immigrant lover. Equally Walker as Beatrice conveys vividly and heartbreakingly her disappointment and discomfiture in the face of her now sexless marriage and the reason for her husband’s neglect, but also the magnificent warmth of a Sicilian matriarch, with so much to offer her husband and niece – and indeed her needy newly-arrived relatives.

Norris is perfectly cast as the pretty blonde Rodolpho, his different and delicate good looks and sensitivity making it plausible not only that he is the object of Catherine’s affections but also Eddie’s hatred. Emun Elliott’s dark, more conventionally Mediterranean Marco is touching in his longing for home and family and determination to make good so far away from them and equally plausible in his own fiery reaction to Eddie’s actions.

My only cavil with the power and intensity of this two-hour (no interval) play is in the insistent soundtrack throughout and a visceral coup de theatre at the end. Neither increase the power or intensity as both are fuelled by the extraordinary ensemble acting acting out Miller’s shattering story. I’d like to think the audience, who rose to their feet almost as one at the end, would have given them a standing ovation even without this final stage effect.

By Judi Herman, who saw the production at the Young Vic before it transferred to the West End.

The View from the Bridge runs until 11 April. 7.45pm, 2.45pm (Wed/Sat only). £19.50-£62.50. Wyndhams Theatre, Charing Cross Rd, WC2H 0DA; 084 4482 5120. www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk

Artist Julian Hanford seeks crowdfunding to commemorate the Holocaust with six million domino tiles

London-based artist Julian Hanford is planning to create an art installation composed of six million domino tiles to commemorate World War II and the 70 years that have passed since its end. The project, FALL, is estimated to cost £1.58m and Hanford is looking to you, the public, for help.

A Phundee.com page will be set up for people to make donations directly. The more you give, the bigger your gifts, which range from FALL t-shirts to owning one of the custom dominoes.

FALL, which will be stacked by domino champion Robin Weijers and co, is said to be bigger than the halls at Alexandra Palace once completed. The scale of the installation is meant to communicate the number of lives lost during Hitler's reign, including Gypsies, Poles, Communists, homosexuals, Russians, the mentally ill and, of course, Jews.

The art piece will be on display in Berlin at the end of 2015 and stand for six days to mark the six years of WWII. At noon on the sixth day, while streamed live online, a Holocaust survivor will knock over the first domino and set off a chain reaction that won't stop until the last tile falls 12 hours later.

For more information, visit www.fall15.com or follow them at @fallevent15.

By Danielle Goldstein

JR at Jewish Book Week: Robin Renwick discusses the subject of his latest book, anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman

Helen Suzman, from JR issue V14-2

This coming Tuesday 24 February Jewish Renaissance's editor Rebecca Taylor will be hosting a special event as part of Jewish Book Week. Taking place at London Jewish Museum, the afternoon will centre around the South African anti-apartheid campaigner Helen Suzman (pictured above visiting Meadowlands high school, Soweto in 1977).

In the darkest days of apartheid Helen stood alone in parliament, confronted by a legion of (mostly) chauvinist male politicians. Despite constant antagonism and threats of violence, she forced into the global spotlight the injustices of the country's minority rule.

Rebecca will be speaking to Robin Renwick, a former ambassador to South Africa, and author of Bright Star in a Dark Chamber, which tells the story of Helen Suzman (you can also read Rebecca's interview with Robin Renwick in the current issue of JR magazine).

Helen's daughter, Frances Jowell, and niece, the actor Janet Suzman will also be speaking. But you need to be quick – there's not long left to get tickets and they're selling fast!

The event, also titled Bright Star in a Dark Chamber, is on Tuesday 24 February. 1-2pm. £6.50. Jewish Museum, 129-131 Albert St, NW1 7NB; 020 7284 7384. www.jewishbookweek.com

To book tickets, email info@jewishbookweek.com or phone 020 7446 8771. Alternatively you can pick up tickets at the venue on the day.

A sneak peak at London Jewish Museum’s wedding retrospective For Richer For Poorer

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

The London Jewish Museum's new exhibition is glorious and beautifully put together. For Richer For Poorer delicately weaves artefacts and archives from the museum's collections with delightful personal material donated or lent by members of the public to tell the story of Jewish marriage throughout the years. Including Jewish immigration and life, with its aspirations and tribulations, its joys and challenges over the years and even centuries. The dresses are gorgeous, the menus mouth-watering – and challenging in the huge number of courses on offer – and the photographs and personally written experiences extraordinarily moving. Anyone who's partial to shedding a tear at weddings should take a packet of tissues!

Also don't miss the free crowd-sourced exhibition Love. The range of everyday objects, historic artefacts and artworks on display are by turns beautiful, surprising and touching – and by no means all Jewish. They include a hand-me-down child's puzzle, a glass shattered under the chuppa (wedding canopy) preserved in blue perspex, and a pin combining the Indian and Scottish flags that symbolises a multicultural union.

By Judi Herman

For Richer For Poorer: Weddings Unveiled runs until 31 May and Your Jewish Museum: Love runs until 19 April. Jewish Museum, 129-131 Albert Street, NW1 7NB; 020 7284 7384. www.jewishmuseum.org.uk

If you can't make it down to the museum, take an audio tour of the exhibition with Judi and Jewish Museum curator Elizabeth Selby.

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

For Richer For Poorer exhib, Jewish Museum, Press 2015

JR's Rebecca Taylor talks Tehran, Shmita and the fall of the Berlin Wall with Jon Kaye on Sunday Jewish Radio

This week Jewish Renaissance editor Rebecca Taylor spoke to Jon Kaye at Sunday Jewish Radio. The station, which is based at Jewish Care in Golders Green, London, broadcasts interviews and conversations on a range of topics and airs – you guessed it – on Sundays! Rebecca told Jon about why she left mainstream journalism for a Jewish magazine and talked about her own Jewish identity, as well as some of the stories in the current issue of JR. Such as Jewish Tehran, why Shmita is becoming a hip commandment, and what has happened to the German Jewish community since the fall of the Berlin wall. You can listen to the interview above.

To find out more about Sunday Jewish Radio, visit their website.

Review: Judi Herman discovers drama and comedy on a women’s cancer ward in Anat Gov’s Happy Ending

Entering a space equipped with hospital beds and drip-stands, you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in an operating theatre, rather than the kind with lights, action and music. But then Happy Ending is a play about women facing up to life with The Big C; cancer.

Managing it as best you can usually means coping with invasive, uncomfortable and time-consuming therapy, time spent on a hospital bed hooked up to a drip stand. Not the stuff of which musicals are made. Well, there’s a lot less blood than that shed by Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and fewer lives lost than on the barricades manned by students in the Paris revolution of 1870 central to Les Misérables.

This is a meditation on and exploration of how we face up to cancer. There’s a lot of fighting talk at the moment in ads for cancer charities urging us to take on the disease and beat it at its own game. But the conclusion of Happy Ending is that there are different coping strategies and different outcomes – no right or wrong way to face and fight cancer – and sometimes we have to make our own choices. We may share those choices with those who care for us or we may choose not to. I say "we", as it is easy to identify with the four brave women on stage, who each embody different ways of coping and many of us have faced (or will face) their choices.

But Happy Ending is of course is a musical show and although Anat Gov’s story explores the issues from the inside (she died from cancer in 2012), she manages to be funny and uplifting en route for the "happy ending" she writes for her central character actress and minor celebrity Carrie Evans, newly diagnosed with the disease (a delicate and detailed performance from Gillian Kirkpatrick).

There are some original and unexpected dance routines – drip stands make elegant partners – there’s a Gospel chorus and even cancer itself is embodied by an attractive young man (Joe McCourt) in a steamy tango. There are killer lines too (yes, the gallows humour is catching): “There’s nothing like the smell of fresh cancer in the morning," says one patient, old hand Silvia (played by the excellent and feisty Andrea Miller). She has been fighting cancer with every treatment possible for so long that she is almost like the top dog in a prison drama (or the block elder in a camp). This lady is a survivor of Auschwitz, so how can she let cancer get the better of her?

Silvia is one of the other three women who embody different ways of coping with their cancer. Miki (the bouncy and attractive Karen Archer) is an ex-hippy who has found so many positives in her diagnosis that she almost has a new lease of life. For a start it has led to a reconciliation with the estranged daughter she neglected during her days of tuning in, turning on and dropping out. Then there’s the devout young Orthodox mother of many, Sarah (Thea Beyleveld, both touching and convincing in her fervour) who trusts in her faith in God to get her through – though she does not trust her yeshiva student husband to look after the children and the plumbing at home.

Yes they are types, but they turn in great performances, as do the supporting (literally) cast of nurses and doctors, led by cheery dedicated nurse Fiona Jodie Jacobs (perfectly channelling a type I recognise from my own recent spell in hospital) and hunky Dr Lynch (Oliver Stoney), the alpha male medic who might have stepped out of any TV hospital drama – cold and caring at the same time.

Director Guy Retallack and Hilla Bar, who adapted the story from Hebrew, have relocated the drama from Israel to North London with the odd mention of, for example, Parliament Hill. Shlomi Shaban and Michal Solomon provide songs that are more stand-out moments of exploring Gov’s theme than the score of a musical moving along the plot or illuminating the characters.

By Judi Herman

Happy Ending runs until Saturday 7 March.  7.30pm (also 3pm Wed/Sat). £12-£19. Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin St, E8 3DL; 020 7503 1646. www.arcolatheatre.com