Th e p ch a o p s er e n
Kiss goodbye Beyond Community gathers for Jewish Museum’s farewell Page 9
Bataclan Film maker draws on Paris survival story
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FREE WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF THE YEAR
More veddings than weddings 3 August 2023
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16 Av 5783
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Issue No.1326
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@JewishNewsUK
‘Marrying out’ rate for UK Jews among the lowest outside Israel British Jews are half as likely to marry outside their faith as American Jews, according to a report released this week that lifts the lid on Jewish relationships across the globe, writes Joy Falk. Twenty-two percent of community members in the UK marry non-Jews – the third lowest intermarriage rate outside Israel – while that figure soars to 45 percent across the
Table of latest marriage statistics from the report
Atlantic. The study on global trends was published by the London-based Institute of Jewish Policy Research (JPR) after research by the director of the body’s European Jewish demography unit, Dr Daniel Staetsky. It shows a vastly different picture across the world, with almost no intermarriage among Israeli Jews (five percent), compared with almost 50 percent in Europe marrying non-Jews. “There is a metaphorical abyss between Israel and the diaspora when it comes to intermarriage,” Staetsky says. While 40 percent of married Jews in the diaspora are married to non-Jews, only five percent of married Jews in Israel are intermarried. Likewise in Hungary, Russia, Poland, Sweden and Denmark, “most Jews today are married to non-Jews”, JPR says. Elsewhere on the continent, Belgian Jews were found to be least likely to marry a non-Jew, with only 14 percent opting to do so, while in Poland, where the Jewish population numbers around 15,000, more than three quarters have married a non-Jew. Levels are low in Israel in part due to a bigger Jewish population making it easier to find a Jewish partner, and although it is much higher elsewhere, intermarriage across the world is not the “existential threat” it is sometimes seen as, Staetsky writes. Continued on page 8
SHOAH FOOTAGE FOUND Extraordinary unseen footage of the aftermath of the rescue of 2,500 Jews who were being taken by the Nazis to Theresienstadt in April 1945 has emerged after nearly 80 years. Watch the video at jewishnews.co.uk
MAYOR COOKS UP KOSHER LUNCH FUNDS FOR JEWISH SCHOOLS State-run Jewish primary schools in London providing kosher lunches to pupils aged between seven and 11 will receive funding amounting to £3.50 per meal at the start of the new academic year, Mayor Sadiq Khan has confirmed, writes Lee Harpin. The cash boost, which Jewish News understands amounts to around £4million in total, means the
capital’s 25 Jewish primary schools will receive 85p extra in funding for kosher meals, compared to the £2.65p offered to all boroughs for non-kosher lunches for Key Stage Two pupils. The mayor confirmed last month that he had made an extra £5million available for “extraordinary costs” following a pledge earlier this year to provide £130m emergency funding
to provide free school meals for state primary school children in the capital in response to the cost of living crisis. Khan has now called on the government to match his funding commitments for pupils in the younger Key Stage One bracket. In further good news, Barnet Council, home to many Jewish primary schools, has confirmed it will be subsidising a kosher kitchen which
will be made available to caterers involved in the preparation and distribution of Jewish school meals throughout the borough. In May, Jewish News revealed how pupils around 15 Jewish primary schools were going without hot lunches, after a succession of catering firms announced they could no longer continue supplying kosher meals.
The difference in the cost of producing kosher lunches and the amount of funding received from the government was at the heart of the problem. This week’s announcement by the mayor follows three months of discussions with communal leaders including Rabbi Joel Sager, of Pardes House Primary School, the London Continued on page 4