Whats SSUSSEUSSExx JJEEwwISHISH NNEEwwSS what’S INSIdE.... NATIONAL HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL dAY | MIAMI NICE | JEwISH BOOK wEEK | wHAT’S ON | ANd MORE JANUARY 2012 • TEVET / SHEVAT 5772 • ISSUE 215 2 Pause for thought 3 Guest commentary by Ivor Richards Holocaust Memorial is nothing new for Jews. Sadly, genocide has continued to be practised Ever since the horrors of the concentration camps throughout the world, despite knowledge of the became known, we have remembered. atrocities perpetrated during the Second World War. We instituted Yom Hashoah one week before the Perhaps philosophers can understand what there is day of celebrating Yom Haatzmaut, which is the within the human psyche that enables such events to day which marks the creation of the modern State take place – I cannot. of Israel. If nothing else, the SADLY, GENOCIDE HAS CONTINUED TO BE PRACTICED Since Holocaust proximity of one Memorial Day was first day to the other THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, DESPITE KNOWLEDGE OF made a national day of is a permanent THE ATROCITIES PERPETRATED DURING THE SECOND commemoration, local reminder of both authorities have been the sorrow and WORLD WAR free to create their own the joy of living. programmes. We in Brighton & Hove have been very fortunate in having caring councillors and officials It took more than 60 years for a British Government who put considerable effort into devising sensitive to recognise that the events of the Holocaust did not events. just affect Jewry and that man’s inhumanity to man is common to all. Please do support them. SJN brings local news, events, articles, reviews, ADMINISTRATOR Ivor Sorokin announcements, people, congregations, communitites, contacts and more. Delivered at the start of each month, SJN is run entirely by volunteers for reporting, ADMIN Assistant Gweni Sorokin editing and circulating each edition that has become the cornerstone of the Jewish community across the region. COMMUNAL DIARY [email protected] COVER Brian Megitt EDITORIAL BOARD Doris Levinson / Stephanie Megitt / Sue Rea David Seidel PRODUCTION/LAYOUT Anand Day TECHNICAL ADVISOR Brian Megitt SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR NEXT ISSUE: 8 JANUARY 2012 SUSSEX JEWISH NEWS SUBSCRIPTION Name: ____________________________________________________Date: _________________________ Address: ________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Postcode: _________________________ Email: _______________________________________________ Telephone: _________________________ Subscription (tick one) I would like to receive electronic copies of SJN. £15 p/a I would like to receive printed copies of SJN. £18 p/a. 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I have made a payment via PayPal (www.paypal.co.uk) to [email protected] ISSUE 215 | JANUARY 2012 2 Contents 3 Sussex Jewish News PO Box 2178 FEATURES Hove BN3 3SZ 1 THE NEW JERUSALEM LIGHT RAIL Telephone: 07906 955 404 Israel reveals its new commuter train e-mail: [email protected] 4 MOSS RICH (1910-2011) An appreciation of our local poet 7 MIAMI NICE Rabbi Charles Wallach on the Jewish culture of South Florida 8 NATIONAL HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY Programme of remembrance in the City and at the University of Sussex 12 MITZVAH DAY 2011 Community action at our best REGULARS 5 YOUR NEWS & VIEWS Letters and announcements 6 COMMUNITY LIFE News from across the county 10 CULTURE Films, lectures, Jewish Book Week and more 16 WHAT’S ON Regular and special events in your community YOUR COMMUNITY 13 BRIGHTON & HOVE PROGRESSIVE SYNAGOGUE 14 BRIGHTON & HOVE REFORM SYNAGOGUE 15 BRIGHTON & HOVE HEBREW CONGREGATION 15 HOVE HEBREW CONGREGATION Full page (A4 size) £160 Sussex Jewish News (‘SJN’), its Editor and Editorial Board: Half page (A5 size) £90 • are not allied to any synagogue or group and the views expressed by writers are Quarter page (A6 size) £50 not necessarily those of SJN; • accept advertisements in good faith but do not endorse any products or 1/9 page (credit card size) £35 services and do not accept liability for any aspect of any advertisements; and Personal: £4 per line • welcome readers’ contributions but reserve the right to edit, cut, decline or submit the content to others for comment. Flyers: Price on application To ensure that we receive your submissions by email, please send them ONLY to Local Jewish charities will not be charged, subject to [email protected], otherwise we cannot guarantee their consideration for publication. To assist the Editorial Board, submissions should be in Word format editorial decision. using Times New Roman as a font. Receipt of submissions may not be acknowledged, BOOK NOW! 07906 955 404 unless specifically requested. As the Editorial Board is made up entirely of volunteers, [email protected] any response may be subject to delay. ADVERTISING ADVERTISING IN SJN GUIDELINES ISSUE 215 | JANUARY 2012 4 Moss Rich (1910-2011) 5 Moss Rich: an obituary critique, Rich was a man with a very big heart and by John Davies and Tom Slingsby tender emotions often sitting side by side with satire in his work. Moss Rich lived an extraordinary life filled with love and poetry, which brought delight to his fans and family After receiving his message from the Queen for his alike. 100th birthday in 2010, Moss continued to publish new works, receiving national media coverage as ‘Britain’s He claimed to have started writing poetry in the 1970s. oldest working poet’. He and Milly were dubbed In 1939 the young Moss met Milly at a performance at ‘The Most Romantic Pair in Britain’ in a feature that London’s Unity Theatre and shortly after commenced appeared in The Mirror. The piece caught the public what was to become a life-long tradition. imagination and the couple appeared soon after in the video for ‘Let There be Love’ by former Spice Girl, Needing a way to make his first Valentine’s Day with Mel C. his sweetheart truly special, Moss lacked the resources to indulge in expensive gifts. Instead, he composed a Moss’s sight had by then deteriorated, yet he continued poem that so charmed Milly, that it started a tradition to share his indefatigable creativity by dictating new of writing her a romantic lyric for every birthday, poems and reciting old ones from memory. In 2010 he anniversary and Valentine’s Day. published A Patch of Land to House Six Million Ghosts through his own Scribblersinn imprint. In the 1970s the Riches moved to Hove, a decade which saw the acerbic side of Moss’s talent come to Waterloo Press published ‘A Psalm of Consequences’ the fore. In 1975 he sent a satirical poem about the and in 2011 Pighog Press published A Lifetime of Love, Harold Wilson government to a political columnist at a luxury boxed edition of Moss’s love poetry printed The Times. He was surprised to see that they published on postcards. This has been a year in which Moss it and even more so to receive a cheque for ‘two and demonstrated his desire to spread his love of poetry a half or three guineas’ in payment for the piece. Moss by supporting the inaugural Moss Rich Poetry Prize, says, ‘From then on, I began taking poetry seriously.’ organised by Pighog Press in conjunction with the University of Sussex. The prize proved a great success, Moss’s poems are nearly all intended to be read aloud and Pighog intends that, by continuing to run it, we and what sets them apart, is their special combination will sustain our celebration of the great man’s legacy of of exuberant rhythmic bounce and sarcastic sense of love and letters long into the future. difference from social convention. But for all his pithy Tom Slingsby is an Assistant Editor with Pighog Press A personal tribute to Moss Rich In his books he launched into the most controversial by Aubrey Cole matters, stating his views - which were often those of the minority - in a manner that was firm but charming. With the passing of Moss Rich an era has come to Although he often acted as the devil’s advocate, few an end. Moss was a man of a great intellect that could have been offended by his observations. All who increased as he grew older. knew Moss will remember him with great affection. MARTIN GROSS Memorials All aspects of stone-masonry undertaken from new to renovation and cleaning 01273 439792 235-237 Hangleton Rd .. Hove .. BN3 7LR 07801 599771 (Next to TEXACO petrol station) ISSUE 215 | JANUARY 2012 4 Your news & views 5 Births Deaths • Mazel tov to Stephanie and Brian Megitt on the birth of a We wish Long Life to: grandson, Louis Solomon. • The family of Freda Gordon z’l • Mazel tov to Barbara Moss on the birth of a second • The family of Adrienne Lewis z’l granddaughter, Sophie Rebecca. • Angela Goldman on the death of her mother, Lilian Pritchard z’l • The family of Moss Rich z’l Special birthdays • The family of Avril Samuels z’l • Mazel tov to each of Devorah Dicks, Jacques Du Vivier, Helen Epstein, Ruth Karp, Miryam Kerpel, Ella Lubich, Sally Manley, Rosalind Pantoock, Pauline Pollock, Ivor Moss Rich, 1910-2011 Richards, Tony Rosenfield, Evelyn Shamash, Matthew In the words of his daughter Shula published on Sorokin, Candice Springer and Nathan Style, all of whom www.webjam.com/indi: are celebrating special birthdays this month. “Moss went to bed, had a massage from his helper, finished his Irish Whisky and by morning had passed peacefully away. Achievements Even with such things we can be blessed!” • Mazel tov to Judy Irwin who was honoured with an award by The Witness Service for services to victims and witnesses in the Crown Court.