Mini cheesecakes

To mark the Jewish festival on Shavuot, on which dairy products are traditionally consumed, I decided to attempt a cheesecake recipe. I’ve tried making cheesecake before, with mixed results, but this time I went for a BBC food recipe for mini raspberry cheesecakes, which you can find here.

The recipe turned out to be a good ‘un. I used a single raspberry at the base of each cake, them added a small dollop of cream cheese icing on the top, for presentation (and taste) purposes. Word of advice: the recipe said it made eight, but the mixture went far further when using normal-sized cupcake cases.

Next up, I’d like to try these with chocolate or strawberry, or perhaps a caramel filling.

Home made frozen yoghurt

So I recently acquired an ice cream maker – ice cream, if course, being my favourite food. But conscious of its calorific nature, I decided to experiment with making frozen yoghurt – and, as it happened, it turned out delicious.

I used a recipe by David Lebovitz, from his book The Perfect Scoop, which can be found here. I used greek yoghurt (life is definitely too short to bother straining yoghurt) substituted agave nectar for some of the sugar but, having made it since, it works just as we’ll either way. I’ve also since experimented with making a chocolate version, adding some good quality cocoa to the mix before churning, which turned out great as well.

Delicious, and we can at least pretend that it’s heathy!

My week in writing

As short week, but once in which I interviewed a childhood heroine – Judith Kerr – author of The Tiger who came to Tea and the wonderful Pink Rabbit trilogy. At nearly 90 she was .and is a remarkable women; witty, charismatic and genuinely a pleasure to speak to. Most interesting were here views, as a former refugee, on immigration and its positives.

Elsewhere, I reported on Melanie Phillips’ plan to run her own publishing company, covered the tale of Polish-born spy during the Second World War, who was remembered at a ceremony tis week, and wrote about what will be on offer in the third series of the channel 4 comedy Friday Night Dinner.

I interviewed a very humble writer called Josef Novakovich, who is in the running for the international Man Booker prize, and discussed why he believes Stephen Hawking’s academic boycott is counterproductive. And I reported on a talk by National Theatre director Sir Nicholas Hytner, in which he discussed his views on the prejudice in Othello and The Merchant of Venice.

And in comment I featured a review of a new book on Hollywood and Hitler, and commissioned a piece by Jonni Berger who, with his sister, launched a campaign to find his mother a stem-cell donor – a successful campaign, I should add.

My week in writing

First up: an exclusive story about the plans for the first ever museum exhibition dedicated to singer Amy Winehouse, which is to open in Camden two years after her death. Curated by her brother, it looks set to be a real celebration of her life and work, and it was a pleasure to write about the plans.

Keeping with the music theme, I spoke to someone who was there when Bob Dylan’s career began – the owner of the folk music centre at which the young Dylan listened to records and learn about the genre. I also interviewed a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor about his brave attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

In arts news, I spoke to director Natalie Abrahami, who has just landed herself a fantastic new role at the Young Vic theatre. And in comment I commissioned a piece by the journalist Abigail Radnor, who asked – and attempted to answer – a difficult and deeply personal question.

Over in the Guardian, I wrote for Comment is Free following Stephen Hawking’s announcement that he was boycotting Israel, arguing that the last thing this conflict needs is headline-grabbing interventions from famous names.

When politics doesn’t need poster children (Guardian)

Stephen Hawking, perhaps the greatest mind of our era, has backed a boycott in protest over the policy of the present Israeli government towards the Palestinians. Hawking’s decision not to attend a conference hosted by Shimon Peres has been greeted with delight by supporters of the boycott campaign. What better way to bolster their argument than a lauded intellectual refusing to stand by in the face of injustice?

The efforts of those who want Israel to be shunned – whether in culture, sport, academia or politics – garner plenty of interest, but never so much as when a celebrity gets on board.

When Hebrew-speaking thespians were invited to the Globe theatre, a chorus including Emma Thompson publicly professed indignation. The debate about Israel hosting next month’s European under-21 football championship went far beyond the blogs following the intervention of Frédéric Kanouté.

Conversely, when Rihanna or Justin Bieber perform in Tel Aviv, they suddenly attract the unlikeliest of fans. Indeed, those against the boycott jumped for joy when it briefly – and incorrectly – seemed that Hawking had cancelled for health, rather than political, reasons.

It’s natural, if you support a cause strongly, to crow when a prominent individual who is listened to far more than the average openly backs your cause. For some – Roger Waters comes to mind – preoccupation with the Israeli-Palestinian situation goes further than a signature, but for many, I’d hazard, wading in one way or the other comes not after years of study of the Middle East.

The famous have as much right as anyone to talk politics and if a prominent individual wishes to back a boycott, or rage against it, he is free to do so. The problem is the activists who seize on them as poster children.

It’s disingenuous, investing one signature with the weight of an entire political approach, and implying that because of a person’s notoriety, their pronouncements are gospel instead of what they are – the views of someone no more or less informed.

Many causes need glitter to get a hearing. The Rohingya Muslims, for example: their plight rarely makes the front page. George Clooney brought Darfur to the world’s attention. You can say plenty about Gaza, but you cannot claim it is ignored by the mainstream media.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is extraordinarily complex. It requires activists with a vested interest to focus on the facts, to aim for more than point-scoring, and consider the real questions – how to end the cycle of violence, for one, and how to educate people on both sides as to why two states is the answer – not which celebrity agrees with them.

What the Middle East desperately needs is dialogue, which is why I believe a boycott cannot offer a constructive approach. The discussion could well benefit from meaningful interventions from intellectuals like Hawking, but these must go beyond headline-grabbing.

This article originally appeared on the Guardian website. Read the original here

Heard the one about the Orthodox Jewish woman suing Lancôme? (Independent Voices)

Advertising, as any consumer with their head screwed on is aware, isn’t really about telling the whole truth. That’s not to say that consistently eating Special K won’t give you the body of the fresh-faced model in red – simply that it’s just as likely you’ll end up with a stomach ache and a craving for chocolate. Buying that shampoo probably won’t leave your hair as salon glossy as Cheryl’s, unless you’re blessed with a personal hairdresser. And no matter how adorable the mascot, car insurance is surely not best chosen on that basis.

So the natural response, as we read with mirth of the woman who is suing Lancôme over the failure of her 24-hour-cream to last for that period, is to shake our heads. “How ridiculous,” we think. “Surely that’s not a real story.” Unfortunately, it is. Rorie Weisberg, who comes across as a veritable “disgusted of…” is apparently taking legal action so absurd that it is reminiscent of a case contested by Ally McBeal.

But, I’d hazard, the reason it’s been so gleefully shared around the web? She’s not just any disgruntled customer. She’s from the Orthodox Jewish community, a world brimming with seemingly bizarre rules and restrictions, like not being able to put on make-up on the Sabbath. A sexist, antiquated, closeted world where, as Weisberg’s case clarifies, women slather on make-up on a Friday night and require it to remain until sundown. A world where women see nothing strange about doing this.

The public seems to have something of a fascination with the strictly Orthodox community, just as it does with any other supposed outliers – Gypsies, say, or Mormons, or the Amish, or indeed people with 16 kids, or the unbelievably obese. I’ve lost count of the number of documentaries casting an eye on the Jews of Stamford Hill, or the regularity with which stories about sex guides for the ultra-religious appear. A photograph of an ultra-Orthodox man wrapped in plastic on a plane was shared around the globe, and discussed with amusement on Have I Got News For You.

To an extent, there’s a natural intellectual curiosity about a closed society; media coverage, and indeed television and books, offers a rare window. If we cannot experience something ourselves, the next best is to be told about it. Yet there’s a fine line between curiosity and thinly-veiled contempt, between offering the opportunity for people to learn about something and giving them a get-out-of-jail-free card to laugh about it.

At the risk of disagreeing with the herd, I found watching the musical The Book of Mormon rather uncomfortable, given that we were essentially being asked to snigger at the ignorant, whether the Mormon missionaries or the generic African villagers. Oh, but it was actually poking fun at American exceptionalism, I’m told. Well, yes, but what about the fact that it involved smug, superior writers all but giggling like children at a culture distinct from their own?

The Mormons, of course, have reacted rather well to the show, and launched a recruitment drive off the back of it. Good for them. And of course we should be able to laugh at religion, to point out its absurdities, and still tolerate it as part of a healthy melting-pot society. I might be Jewish, but I’ve no more connection than the next person to the baffling decisions made in the name of faith by those on the extreme fringes of the community. I can see the comedy value in a passenger who has essentially cling-filmed himself because he is so devout; I can appreciate how ludicrous it is that the woman wouldn’t just reapply the next morning. And it’s not as if these stories are fabricated to cast strictly Orthodox Jews in a bad light – on the contrary – perhaps frustratingly for the rest of the Jewish community – they are all too real.

And I know exactly why newspapers, documentary makers and bloggers seize on these cases – they are funny and ridiculous, and they guarantee plenty of web traffic and twitter discussion. But it’s hard to be totally relaxed with the way laughing about extreme religious behaviour has become so mainstream, so trendy.

For by and large, there is no attempt at understanding, at examination. These anecdotes are not reported on because they tell us anything about those communities, only because they are humorous. They reveal absurd caricatures taking observance to the furthest extreme, and tar an entire community with the brush of the strangest member. As a supposedly tolerant, inclusive society, I’m not sure we should be so comfortable with that.

This piece orginally appeared on the Independent website. See the orginal here

My week in writing

Plenty of coverage of arts and entertainment this week, as I went to the launch of the new season of The Apprentice, covering what Lord Sugar had to say – reluctantly, on his part, since he seemed less than happy to be at the launch – and digging into the history of one of the candidates.

I also spoke to some leading names in the Jewish cultural world, discussing Culture Secretary Maria Miller’s recent comment on arts funding, and heard why the issue is not as simple as she made out. Following the Olivier Awards, I chatted to one of the winners, Top Hat producer Kenny Wax, and then spoke to the daughter of Irving Berlin, who composed the music that appears in the show.

Elsewhere, I looked into the BBC’s mysterious cancellation of a documentary about Jerusalem’s history, and spoke to the director to hear his version of the story. I heard from the US pollster Nate Silver at a speaking event, reporting on his views on Ukip.

And looking back in history, I covered the “Downton Abbey Jews” who fled Nazi Germany on domestic service visas in the 1930s: a fascinating and little-discussed slice of the past. And in comment I was pleased to relaunch the section, with teaser images and a new weekly book review column.

Over on Indy Voices, I argued that the fascinating with stranger-than-fiction stories of the conduct of religious people wasn’t necessarily healthy or constructive.

My week in writing

I spent Wednesday of this week with my head buried in old government documents – top secret files dating back to 1943 onwards. The papers in question were colonial records, newly released at the National Archives.

Aside from the thrill of being among the first people to study these documents in seven decades, it was fascinating, for the insight into the history and politics of the time, and for what they revealed about British manners in he 1940s. My research yielded several news stories: about British attitudes before the end of the Mandate period, the High Commissioner’s thought on the Jewish fighters, the situation of Arab nationalism during the Second World War, and about how the SS Exodus incident was viewed by British diplomats.

Elsewhere, I enjoyed a preview of Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher, learning that she felt that the Finchley Tories were sacrificing Jewish voters. I covered a Channel Four documentary on the property boom in Gaza, speaking to the presenter about what he found, and reported on the sale of a poem by an extraordinary Victorian writer and feminist, whom Oscar Wilde viewed as a rare talent.

In comment, I wrote about why communal squabbling was not only childish, but ultimately destructive, and enjoyed the fact that all three of the commissioned comment pieces (not including the regular columns) were written by women.

I also familiarised myself with some of the history of Israeli art, from the latter part of the 19th century to modern day, and heard from the author of a new book on the subject why there is more to the country’s cultural heritage than pictures of camels.

Finally, I wrote for the Independent on the subject of role models, discussing whether the contributions of celebrities could ever be of educational value.

Justin Bieber could teach kids a thing or two about history (Independent)

When it comes to the thorny question of education, there are plenty of points of view around, with Michael Gove urging more rigour and the teaching unions staunchly opposing his plans.

But left or right-wing, one thing we’d expect everyone to be united on is that a teenage pop star probably doesn’t make the best history teacher.

Yet thanks to Justin Bieber’s arguably inappropriate guestbook comment, this week some of Britain’s youngsters may have had their first exposure to the Holocaust and to teenage diarist Anne Frank.

His fans certainly think that’s the case. “Reading tweets I saw that other teens my age and some who were even older had no clue who Anne was, which really surprised me,” says Leah, 15, whose Twitter handle even has “Bieber” in it. “If he and other celebrities begin to mention more icons like Anne then it will help.”

“Justin is someone people look up to, so they may want to find out more,” adds avowed Belieber Emily, 16.

Given that Justin is unlikely to follow his tour of The Anne Frank House with a trip to the Somme – “where did they plug their ipods in?” – or start quoting Shakespeare on Twitter, we can leave the rights and wrongs of his tribute to one side. But the incident raises the question of role models, and whether it is worrying that many teenagers would rather look up to Jessie J or Harry Styles than Anne Frank.

“On the whole their role models are celebrities or sports stars,” says secondary school religious studies teacher Simon. “Most of them have a few who they see as somebody to look up to – who they are rather obsessed with and drool over.”

But other teachers point out that pupils often consciously choose not to follow the crowd, and say we should give them more credit. “In my college it’s more about Beyonce, Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar,” says history A Level teacher Andrew. “Some idolise them uncritically, others just appreciate their films or music but recognise their fallibility.”

“My pupils talk about celebrities a lot, often expressing admiration,” says Josh, a secondary school science teacher. “However, do not underestimate their ability to decide make their own opinion of what is worth following. With boys and footballers – they are just as likely to view them negatively as positively.”

Simon used Bieber’s gaffe to start a discussion about the surrounding issues in a Monday lesson. As a football fan, he finds it can be useful for pupils to “know that you are interested in things they are interested – teachers who can’t sometimes struggle relating to the kids.”

Although he wouldn’t generally cite a specific celebrity, he would introduce a topic with “an analogy with something in their cultural realm.”

“Some of them were talking about football violence today [after clashes at the FA Cup semi finals],” he adds. “If something in the media tickles their interest they are much more likely to talk about it than If I say ‘let’s discuss racism.”

“If in my case Justin was to tweet about an issue, I know that the next morning my friends and I would be discussing it,” says Leah. “If Justin and other celebrities did mention Anne and other icons from history then they would definitely get people’s attention.”

“I find the use of ‘celebrity’ in the classroom extremely powerful. It can introduce young people to topics in a manner that parents and teachers are simply unable to,” explains Josh, “But for some students, if used as anything more than simply a ‘hook’ it can blind them to the real lesson. And there is certainly a danger when the celebrity does not know much of the world they are stumbling into, such as Bieber and the Holocaust.”

Of course, it is tricky territory; one pupil’s idol is another’s laughing stock. More than that, there’s the worry that a onetime mention will be interpreted as an endorsement of everything that celebrity does. Simon refers to one pupil, who changes her hair in response to her favourite star’s prerogative. “What if that celebrity started to self harm?” he asks.

And teen idols, from Lindsay Lohan to Miley Cyrus, are known for falling from grace – in different ways of course. Bieber might be reminding his fans about the Nazis this week, but what if he gets into a brawl tomorrow? “It can lead to certain difficult questions down the road,” says Simon.

According to Jonathan Freeman, national director of mentoring network Mosaic, the real problem is when they lack additional role models within their own lives.

“The young people with whom we work recognise very clearly that media stars rarely offer them a realistic goal to which to aspire,” he says. “Sadly, too few have examples of individuals who have achieved significant success in their careers from within their own social and family networks.”

It’s not always an option to brush a celebrity’s behaviour under the carpet, especially when pupils see that person as a role model. Teachers have to proceed with caution, but they also have to engage with what their pupils are talking about. “A good teacher will always find a way to help students relate to any subject,” says Josh. “A celebrity is simply one tool.”

And those complaining of the dumbing down of a generation would do well to remember that Anne herself had posters of her idols on her walls, as many teenagers do today.

“Is it worrying at 14?” asks Simon. “For the most part they grow out of it and realise it’s immature to see that person as a role model. I can’t imagine too many of them being obsessed with Jessie J at university.”

To see the original and read the comments, click here.

My week in writing

I started the week with a blog post responding to Justin Bieber’s questionably appropriate message in the Anne Frank House guestbook, arguing that while not necessarily tasteful, it could be utilised in a positive way.

Back on rather more serious matters, I covered the once-a-decade announcement of the Granta young writers list, interviewing five of those who were honoured and discussing whether we were seeing a revival in the Anglo-Jewish literary scene. Staying with literature, I wrote about AM Homes making the shortlist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and the writers who were named as finalists for the Pulitzer Prize in America.

I spoke to an artist about how his grandfather;s immigrant experience had prompted a sculpture of an upside-down-alien (now on display in London) and covered the annual Rich List, which marked its 25th birthday this year.

In domestic communal news, I reported on Laura Janner-Klausner’s decision to turn down an invitation to Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and heard from her why she felt it appropriate, and looked back in the archives at how the community marked Winston Churchill’s death.

Over in the comment section, I was pleased to commission a piece marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and looking at the wider history of resistance, which was illustrated with a breathtaking rare photograph from inside the ghetto.