A review of Keith Pearce’s book has been  made by Dr Jo Esra an associate researcher at the Institute of Cornish Studies and a lecturer with Humanities Penryn on the Penryn University Campus. Click here to access.
Category Archives: News
Clearance of Falmouth Jewish Cemetery
Question: How do you get 265 years of intrusive vegetation cleared in only 3 days?
Answer: Find two two old Jews and give them the job.
David Hearle and Anthony Fagin, members of Kehillat Kernow with a combined age of 144 years, using tools both ancient and modern, stripped back the vegetation and pollarded the self-seeded trees that for aeons had progressively been engulfing the site of the historic Jewish Cemetery in Falmouth. For the first time in generations it is now possible to see all the gravestones. Many still remain standing, albeit it at precarious angles, while others have fallen. Of those that have fallen, several have been vandalised. But at least a proper survey can now be undertaken of the remedial work that needs to be done to repair and re-erect the fallen stones in their proper places and to repair the perimeter walls and other architectural features of the cemetery.
An alliance called Friends of the Ponsharden Cemeteries has been formed with volunteers responsible for restoring the adjoining Dissentersâ Cemetery and also involving representatives of Falmouth Town Council and Historic England. Work is now well advanced on the preparation of a project proposal that will be sent to potential funders in the hope of securing sufficient funding to enable restoration work to start (subject to the granting of formal approval since both sites are Scheduled Monuments).
The eight  photographs in the photo gallery show the clearance work under way, the cleared site and a member of the local fire brigade putting a damper on proceedings having been called out by passing motorists who were alarmed by the bonfire.
Words and pictures by Anthony posted by Leslie
South West Jewish Community Get-Together
On Sunday 17th May, there will be a South West ‘simcha’ in Totnes, featuring Israeli dance and song, Jewish music and stories, jokes and food. You can find out more in the Events section.
View from Netanya
ELKANâS VIEW 15th April 2015
I was strolling through a park in Raâanana last week when I heard an orchestra and choir rehearsing the Hatikvah. The tune is haunting, although its origins are by no means clear. The wording, by the poet Naftali Hertz Imber, has become so familiar as to almost lose its force. The phrase âOd lo avda tikvateynu – our hope is not yet lostâ is a direct rebuttal of the phrase in Ezekielâs vision of the valley of the dry bones.
What particularly struck me is how very near the valley of the dry bones we actually came. As I write this, it is the evening of Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Memorial Day.
Tomorrow morning at 10 oâclock the siren will sound throughout the whole of Israel and everything will come to a halt. Buses and cars will stop on the motorways and roads, and the passengers will get out and stand in silence in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered merely because they were Jews.
Six million is a very difficult figure to envisage. The current population of Israel is estimated at 8.2 million of which 6.1 million are Jews. To envisage the extent of the Holocaust therefore we need to imagine an Israel â populated, teeming, people everywhere going busily about their business and preoccupations, studying, driving holidaying working â with all its Jewish population removed.
Envisage in your mindâs eye a Jerusalem or a Tel Aviv or a Haifa or any other of the hundreds of towns and villages and settlements, or stripped of their population by force, and that population removed with cruelty and terror to be murdered on an industrial scale. That is the extent of the Holocaust.
Is there any reason any more to question the need for a Jewish state? Genocide has not gone away but the world does not seem to care any more and the silence is as deafening now as it was then.
Well does Hatikvah say that we have nurtured for 2000 years the dream of being âAm chofshi beâartzeynu â a free people in our own landâ. We are privileged to be of the generation that has seen this dream become reality.
View from Netanya
ELKANâS VIEW 15th April 2015
I was strolling through a park in Raâanana last week when I heard an orchestra and choir rehearsing the Hatikvah. The tune is haunting, although its origins are by no means clear. The wording, by the poet Naftali Hertz Imber, has become so familiar as to almost lose its force. The phrase âOd lo avda tikvateynu – our hope is not yet lostâ is a direct rebuttal of the phrase in Ezekielâs vision of the valley of the dry bones.
What particularly struck me is how very near the valley of the dry bones we actually came. As I write this, it is the evening of Yom HaShoa, Holocaust Memorial Day.
Tomorrow morning at 10 oâclock the siren will sound throughout the whole of Israel and everything will come to a halt. Buses and cars will stop on the motorways and roads, and the passengers will get out and stand in silence in memory of the six million Jews who were murdered merely because they were Jews.
Six million is a very difficult figure to envisage. The current population of Israel is estimated at 8.2 million of which 6.1 million are Jews. To envisage the extent of the Holocaust therefore we need to imagine an Israel â populated, teeming, people everywhere going busily about their business and preoccupations, studying, driving holidaying working â with all its Jewish population removed.
Envisage in your mindâs eye a Jerusalem or a Tel Aviv or a Haifa or any other of the hundreds of towns and villages and settlements, or stripped of their population by force, and that population removed with cruelty and terror to be murdered on an industrial scale. That is the extent of the Holocaust.
Is there any reason any more to question the need for a Jewish state? Genocide has not gone away but the world does not seem to care any more and the silence is as deafening now as it was then.
Well does Hatikvah say that we have nurtured for 2000 years the dream of being âAm chofshi beâartzeynu â a free people in our own landâ. We are privileged to be of the generation that has seen this dream become reality.