Blogs

UKIP tied itself up in knots last week, after announcing support for a ban on religious slaughter, only for senior party members to indicate they were looking for a way to backtrack.

But it is not the only policy that would not go down well within the Jewish community.

UKIP’s proposal to restrict child benefit to just two children – published on the party’s website would obviously hit large families without large budgets.

After weeks of talks, much speculation and plenty of public opinion Jewish-owned Oldham Athletic football club have confirmed they will not be signing convicted rapist Ched Evans.

What with the public backlash against Oldham and, previously, Sheffield United – Evans’ former team – it is unlikely that any other clubs will attempt negotiations, so no doubt the Twitter hordes and angry petition-signers, who opposed the proposed signing, will be happy. But they shouldn’t be.

They have effectively overruled our justice system by deciding that what they think and feel is more important than the law. In denying Evans’s his right to rehabilitation they have chosen mob justice over actual justice. For if we are to believe in the justice system, which places an emphasis on the rehabilitation of criminals, how can we not support Evans’s efforts to regain meaningful employment and become a contributing tax-paying member of society once more?

An investigation into ancient camel bones in Israel caused a good deal of excitement recently.

According to the Israeli archaeologists, the remains suggested that camels were domesticated only much later than the time of the patriarchs according to Jewish tradition. Hence the early Bible stories in which camels appear could not be true.

Among those who seized on the findings were Andrew Brown, editor of The Guardian’s online Belief section, who wrote a blog entitled “The Old Testament's made-up camels are a problem for Zionism”.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis this week spelt out the reasons for his opposition to partnership minyans at the annual conference for United Synagogue rabbis.

Two months ago he announced that PMs – semi-egalitarian Orthodox services where women can read from the Torah – were inappropriate to hold on US premises.

On Tuesday he led a shiur which examinied in greater detail why these new-style services are an innovation too far.

If you’re a single Jewish girl, you’ll experience one or more of these things today:

1) You wake up to a box of chocolates and note … from your mum. The note ends with a JDate subscription and ticket to a Jewish Care Jew-do – that you pocket for later.

2) All single friends WhatsApp each other: “Happy Galentine’s Day, girlieeeees." You cringe, but send back the obligatory xoxo.

So Aidan Burley won't stand in the 2015 election - saving himself and his party from another 15 months of torrid headlines about his best mate's Nazi-themed stag-do.

Forgive me if I hold back from lavishing praise on the Conservative MP for his decision.

Burley should, of course, have stepped down with immediate effect more than two years ago after he hired an SS outfit for the booze-up in a French ski resort.

Leading Orthodox outreach organisations gathered at conference in Watford last weekend, pledging to work more closely together in a spirit of unity.

But guess who was missing from the event, which was put on by Aish, the Jewish Learning Exchange (which is connected with Ohr Somayach) and Project Seed?

Rabbis from the United Synagogue, Federation and other organisations such as Kesher were listed as attending. But there was no mention of Lubavitch.

Here's the views of some guests from abroad at the Limmud conference published over the past few days:

"The weather was awful, and the food not much better- but everything else about this annual British-Jewish mega-event was fabulous” “Judy Maltz of Ha’aretz

“Too often Jewish commitment is translated as simply writing a check, and these days even that behavior is sadly diminishing. What if we learned from Limmud, and expected more of each other — more of our time, our brains, our creativity and commitment? The best of Jewish life isn’t necessarily free. The young leaders of Limmud taught me that.” Jane Eisner of The Jewish Daily Forward