Latest news with #OrthodoxJewish
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
The Mancunian Way: Ding-dong in a Munich nightclub
'We are homeless' reads the sign fashioned from a scratty bit of cardboard attached to a bright blue tent in Stockport town centre. This makeshift shelter is currently home to a family who came to the UK last year from Iraq. Mohammed, his wife and their 18-year-old son have been sleeping rough outside the offices of social housing provider Stockport Homes. READ MORE: Driver dies after crashing into wall in Greater Manchester READ MORE: Girl, 13, 'topples into reservoir in front of her dad while taking photo' "We need help, it's not safe here. I've been here for ten days, my wife is sick, we can't stay like this,' Mohammed told local democracy reporter Declan Carey. The family - and another rough sleeper in a tent next to theirs - are among a growing number of people sleeping rough in the town. The council, grappling with major housing shortages, expects to spend up to £1m on hotel accommodation this year - up from £180,000 three years ago. Stockport Homes say Mohammed's family was offered accommodation but turned it down because it was outside the borough - a situation that would leave them in temporary accommodation. You can read more about the family's predicament here. Yehudis Fletcher always felt 'comfortable' in Manchester as a child visiting from Scotland - joining her grandmother on day trips into town and to the Jewish Museum. But when she moved to the city as a teenager to live with a Jewish scholar - and subjected to horrific abuse at his hands - she was silenced by the city's Orthodox Jewish, or charedi, community. Now a convicted paedophile, Grynhaus sexually assaulted Yehudis repeatedly, stealing into her bedroom at night and forcing himself upon her. Young and shielded from sexual ideas and language through her religion, she didn't even have the words to describe what was happening to her. In her new memoir Chutzpah, she explores her faith, sexuality and the community. She has been speaking to reporter Nicole Wootton-Cane about her horrific ordeal at the hands of a man she thought she could trust. It's a harrowing but worthwhile read. One of Manchester's biggest developers has been accused of using 'different figures' to avoid having to build affordable housing. Renaker, which has built many of Manchester's skyscrapers, has repeatedly successfully argued the schemes it has put forward would not make enough profit to be 'viable' if it included affordable housing as per council policy. However, a court heard this week that the developer allegedly uses a 'different set of figures' when seeking loans with 'modest' interest rates. It comes as the Greater Manchester Combined Authority defends itself against claims brought to the Competition Appeal Tribunal that it loaned £120m to Renaker through its Housing Investment Loan Fund with 'no lawful or proper process'. Politics writer Joseph Timan has all the details here. "Good luck with that," says Roger Carrington, on hearing that Warburton Toll Bridge may have to close. For more than 160 years travellers have been paying to cross the iron and stone bridge on the south west edge of Trafford. It's now a well-used route for drivers heading to and from the M6 and M62. But Peel Port Group say it may have to close permanently unless 'selfish and irresponsible' drivers of lorries, tractors and other HGVs stop crossing it in spite of current weight restrictions during a £6.5m upgrade. The long-standing 12p toll has been temporarily removed. But the threat of closure and a planned increase in the toll to £1 once work is complete hasn't gone down well with villagers in Warburton, as reporter Damon Wilkinson discovered. American pop-rockers Haim have chosen an unusual spot for their latest photoshoot. It appears the cover art for their new release features an area near Piccadilly Gardens, with Don Tacos and One Piccadilly Gardens quite easily recognisable in the background. It's sent fans into a frenzy with one declaring: 'Omg not near Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester take me back to uni lmao!' While another said: 'What the hell are you doing on Portland Street? I am beside myself.' What's On writer Adam Maidment has been scouring the details of the shot, including a W H Smith bag and a reference to a very noughties celeb couple. Drought: The Environment Agency has declared a drought in the north-west of England. Details here. Move on: Stockport council's new leader has demanded action rather than words on the town's call for a Metrolink stop. Mark Roberts said plans to expand the Metrolink network to Stockport need to move forward. Affordability: Despite efforts to build more homes, property in Salford is becoming 'less affordable', the city's mayor has said. Paul Dennett has warned that the cost of living in Salford is being pushed further out of reach for some of the city's residents as prices continue to surge. Tickets: Oldham Athletic FC will play Southend at Wembley on Sunday - the first time the club has visited the iconic stadium in over 30 years. But there are concerns Lactics fans will miss out due to ticket allocations for the game. More here. Friday: Light rain changing to overcast by late morning. 19C. Roads: A572 St Helens Road southbound, Leigh, closed due to roadworks from A578 Twist Lane to Bonnywell Road. Until June 30. A6 Chapel Street westbound, Salford, closed due to long-term roadworks from A6041 Blackfriars Road to A34 New Bailey Street. Until January 19. A58 Park Road in both directions closed due to water main work at Westhoughton until May 30. 'The infamous Oasis 'ding-dong' in a Munich nightclub that cost Liam Gallagher €50,000 and his two front teeth'. How's that for a headline on a story I am definitely going to read. As you can imagine, the copy is littered with Liam's usual fruity parlance, so look away if you are easily offended. Otherwise, read on.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Marthe Cohn, French Jewish secret agent who posed as a nurse in wartime Germany
Marthe Cohn, who has died aged 105, was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in France; she survived the Holocaust and after the liberation of Paris in 1944, joined the French First Army intelligence service and crossed over into southern Germany, posing as a German nurse looking for her fiancé. The intelligence she sent back was instrumental in allowing the Allies to break through the Siegfried Line and enter German territory in 1945, leading to the end of the war. In 2002, with Wendy Holden, she told her story in Behind Enemy Lines: The True Story of a French Jewish Spy in Nazi Germany. One of seven children, she was born Marthe Hoffnung on April 13 1920 in the north-eastern French city of Metz, in the Lorraine region that had been part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918. She grew up fluent in both French and German. The Hoffnungs were aware of the rise of anti-Semitism in Germany under the Nazis, and Marthe recalled how, after Kristallnacht, November 9 1938, the family home was opened to Jews fleeing Germany. In August 1939, at the urging of the French government, Marthe and her family left Metz for Poitiers, south-west of Paris, which became part of the occupied zone of France after the German invasion of 1940. There they were helped by French farmers and Marthe got a job as a municipal translator, and because she looked so Aryan, with fair hair and blue eyes, she became a favourite of the German commanding officer, who suggested she should make a career for herself in Berlin. One of Marthe's sisters was living in Paris on false papers. Martha acquired false papers of her own, moved in with her sister and attended nursing school. Meanwhile, her family were involved in helping hundreds of Jews cross over from the Nazi-occupied zone into the 'free' zone of southern France, efforts which in 1942 were discovered by the Germans when they intercepted a letter written by Marthe's younger sister, Stéphanie. Stéphanie was arrested by the Gestapo on June 17 and imprisoned, but she refused to tell her captors anything. In an effort to persuade her to talk, the Gestapo arrested her father. When that did not produce the desired result he was released. In September 1942 Stéphanie was deported to Auschwitz. She never returned. Marthe, meanwhile, organised her family's escape from Poitiers to the Vichy zone of France, where, thanks to her false papers, she continued her studies at the nursing school of the French Red Cross in Marseille. However her fiancé, Jacques Delaunay, a student she had met in Poitiers, who had been involved in the Resistance, was shot in October 1943 at Suresnes. She tried, without success, to join the Resistance, and after the Liberation of Paris, when, she joined the mad dash of people looking to enlist in the French army, she was unable to provide a birth certificate and could not join the service until November 1944. She was originally assigned to work as a nurse until the colonel of her regiment discovered she was fluent in German and suggested she enter the intelligence service: 'He explained that in the German army, all men were in uniform. So any man in civilian clothes would be noticed and arrested. That's why they needed women.' After training she was sent via Switzerland into Germany in early 1945 with false papers under the name Marthe Ulrich. Soon after crossing the border, she ran into a German soldier and, raising her right arm she said, 'Heil Hitler' before he asked for identification: 'I was very worried because I knew they were false papers, and I didn't know if he would notice it or not, but he gave it back to me with no problems. I was now in Germany.' Her cover story, which she had invented herself, was that her parents had been killed in Allied bombing and she was an only child. All she had left was a photograph of the man she was supposed to marry together with a stack of his love letters 'They were very sympathetic toward me,' Marthe said of the Germans she encountered, and she admitted pangs of conscience at deceiving the families who showed her hospitality. One day she came across a group of retreating German soldiers, including a non-commissioned SS officer who was bragging about his exploits on the Eastern Front: 'He was raving about the Poles and Jews and how many he killed.' He could 'smell a Jew', he told her. Suddenly the man, who had been wounded, collapsed in front of her, 'so I was a good German nurse. I took care of him.' He ended up giving her valuable information about German troop movements, including the fact that the Siegfried Line had been evacuated, and where the Germany army was hidden in the Black Forest – key pieces of information for the Allies. To deliver the information, she met up with Allied forces as they were about to enter Freiburg: 'The first tank arrived, and I went in the middle of the street and I made the 'V' sign for victory. It was the only way for me to show them I was a friend. The tanks stopped in front of me because I'm very lucky, and I asked to talk to the commander of the tanks. I was quite assertive, too.' Marthe returned to France after the war, then in 1953, while undertaking further nursing training in Geneva, she met Major Lloyd Cohn, an American medical student. They married in 1956 and moved to the US, where Marthe worked as a nurse and, later, a nurse anaesthetist. The couple had two sons and eventually settled in California. For decades she remained quiet about her wartime work, but in 1998 she returned to France and asked to see her war records. To her surprise, they agreed. Then, following the death in 2001 of her brother she decided the time was right: 'He knew I had been in Germany... He was the one who protected our whole family and paid for everything. After the war, he asked me to write a book. So when he died, I felt I owed it to him.' Marthe Cohn was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1945 and the Médaille militaire in 1999, and was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur in 2004. In 2014 she was awarded the Verdienstkreuz, the Order of Merit of Germany, for saving German lives by helping to shorten the war. Marthe Cohn, born April 13 1920, died May 21 2025 Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. 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Express Tribune
4 days ago
- Business
- Express Tribune
Spanish hatmaker says Trump tariffs threaten Orthodox Jewish tradition
Listen to article A historic Spanish hatmaker says its 40-year tradition of supplying black felt hats to Orthodox Jewish communities in the United States is under threat due to new US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. The Fernandez y Roche Industrias Sombreras Españolas factory, based in Seville, began facing a 10% import tariff in May, raising concerns that its long-standing business relationship with Jewish communities in New York and New Jersey may not survive the current trade tensions. 'This will be dramatic for us,' said Abraham Mazuecos, managing director of the 140-year-old factory. 'Our margins are tight, so we expect a decline in demand.' The company exports around 30,000 hand-crafted hats annually to Orthodox Jewish customers in the US, accounting for about half of its total exports to that community. The other half goes to Israel. The hats are worn daily by Orthodox Jewish men from the age of 13 and typically replaced every three years at prices ranging between $120 and $380. Mazuecos said US clients may begin turning to domestic manufacturers, especially if tariffs are raised further. Trump has suggested an additional 50% tariff on EU goods, although negotiations with the European Union have been extended until 9 July. 'There are hat factories in the United States, but they are highly specialised in cowboy hats,' Mazuecos explained. 'It's a completely different product.' Currently, Spanish-made hats account for around 20% of all black felt hats purchased annually by Orthodox Jews in the US, with the rest mainly sourced from Italy and China. Mazuecos warned that the factory cannot afford to lower prices to absorb the increased costs, putting decades of trusted supply at risk. The Trump administration has long criticised the EU for what it claims are unfair trade practices, using tariffs as leverage in ongoing negotiations. If talks fail and higher tariffs are implemented, the Fernandez y Roche factory may be forced to cut production – a move that would disrupt one of the more unusual cross-cultural business ties between Europe and the US.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Trump's trade war imperils Spanish hatmaker's business with US Orthodox Jews
SEVILLE, Spain, - A Spanish hatmaker warned that a 40-year tradition of supplying felt hats to Orthodox Jews in the U.S. risked becoming a casualty in President Donald Trump's trade war. The community, which is mainly based in New York and New Jersey, buys around 30,000 hats annually from the 140-year-old Fernandez y Roche Industrias Sombreras Españolas factory in Seville in southern Spain, and in May began paying a 10% tariff on imports for the first time, the factory's Managing Director Abraham Mazuecos told Reuters. Trump, who has repeatedly criticised the EU for what he says are unfair trade imbalances with the U.S., has also recommended a further 50% tariff for EU goods, but on Sunday agreed to extend the deadline for talks between Washington and the 27-nation bloc for a deal until July 9. Higher tariffs would be "dramatic" for the hand-made hat factory, since it can't afford to reduce prices for its long-term clients in the U.S. to offset the new fee, Mazuecos said. "Our margins are tight, so we expect a decline in demand," Mazuecos told Reuters. The factory supplies 60% of the 100,000 hats bought each year by Orthodox Jews, with half going to the U.S. and the other half to Israel. Spanish hats account for a fifth of all black felt hats purchased by the Orthodox Jewish community in the U.S., which also imports from Italy and China, Mazuecos said. The black felt hat, worn daily by Orthodox Jewish men from the age of 13, is typically replaced every three years at a cost of between $120 and $380, he added. Mazuecos said that U.S. customers could gradually buy fewer hats from abroad and seek U.S. manufacturers that can produce them at lower prices. "There are hat factories in the United States, but they are highly specialised in cowboy hats," he said.
New York Times
24-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
What Is ‘Dying With Dignity'?
To the Editor: Re 'The Big Flaw in New York's Assisted Suicide Bill,' by L.S. Dugdale (Opinion guest essay, May 15): Dr. Dugdale knows that to qualify for every Medical Aid in Dying, or MAID, law in the 10 states and the District of Columbia, a patient must be an adult, have a six-month terminal prognosis and be found to have capacity (the patient can describe the condition, list the alternative treatments and give risks and benefits for each). As a physician, Dr. Dugdale is also aware of the Patient Self-Determination Act of 1990, a federal law granting patients with capacity the right to pursue treatment, refuse treatment, pause treatment, discontinue treatment and receive treatment by advance directive. The law also requires physicians to abide by the decisions of patients or refer them to another provider. In every MAID law in the U.S. not one but two physicians (as well as one nonmedical witness) must determine and attest to patient capacity. To say that physicians often do not recognize capacity (because of a patient's depression) is simply not true and a slight to the profession. G. William Knight Saline, Mich. To the Editor: I read about the New York State Medical Aid in Dying bill in an Orthodox Jewish publication, which correctly opposes it and has many concerns were it to pass. Yes, it can quickly become a tool of malign convenience, never mind those whose family members covet a large life insurance policy payout, sooner rather than later.
