Chas Newkey-Burden's Blog, page 11

We need to talk about Shakshuka

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I almost never cook. However, I’ve recently attempted to make shakshuka a couple of times. I was particularly pleased with my second attempt, pictured below.

I loosely followed this recipe from good old Yotam Ottolenghi. I’d love to hear your recipes, tips and thoughts on making shakshuka. And where is the best place to eat shakshuka in Israel and (if anywhere) in the UK?

In the coming days I also plan to attempt two other Ottolenghi dishes: hummus kawarma with lemon sauce, and fried cauliflower with tahini. Any general tips or thoughts on those dishes would be welcome too.

 

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Mazal tov, Gilad

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Happy birthday, Gilad Shalit. To 120, young man.

On loss and love (and Amy)

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There were several obvious reasons for me to visit the Amy Winehouse: A Family Portrait exhibition at the Jewish Museum in London today. I love Amy’s music, I’ve written articles and a book about her life, and I ran a half marathon last year to raise funds for her family’s charity, the Amy Winehouse Foundation.

But I also went to learn about grief.

I don’t know much about grief, as I’ve rarely experienced it. I don’t know if there is an average number of times someone of 40 will have been seriously bereaved, but if there is, I bet my number would be well below it. There are very few extended-family relatives on my father’s side, and all of my mother’s extended family live in Latvia and Australia, far enough away, both literally and emotionally, for me to rarely feel the cut of pain deeply when people pass away.

I felt it when we lost my paternal grandmother, a jolly Christian who loved Israel and visited several times. Yet the grief was eased hugely by the knowledge that I’d developed a much closer bond with her during her final year.

I also felt sad when my uncle on my mother’s side passed away. I’d only met him during two family holidays to Australia. During the second one he proved to be memorably raucous, generously indulging my 15-year-old passion for strong lager, menthol cigarettes and bawdy humour.

When he died, unexpectedly and young, I set aside any grief I felt to support my mother, whose loss was the real one. Indeed, I had the onerous task of telling her he had died, a responsibility that horrified me but, if I am frank, also made me feel very grown-up.

Those two incidents aside, the people I’ve known who have died were distant enough from me for me to avoid the plunge into true grief and mourning. Yet one day I will lose people very close to me, and, with such little experience of loss, I’ve become curious and apprehensive about how that might feel. 

Since Princess Diana died in 1997, the public has increasingly taken to mourning public figures we never personally knew. I’m not really into that, but I have succumbed twice: when Joe Strummer died in 2002, and when Amy Winehouse died in 2011.

I’ll always remember when I first heard the rumour Amy had died. Having followed her life so closely for so long, I knew that rumours of her death regularly sprung up. I hoped the new rumour would be disproved like the rest. But it wasn’t. I spent much of the following week being interviewed on radio and television about Amy, her life and her legacy.

I suppose I felt a sense of grief myself. Interestingly, although every television and radio interviewer except one told me before we went on air that I was more than welcome to cry during the interview, the only time I did cry was when I went on air with the one interviewer who had not mentioned crying.

I also had a little weep when I walked around the Amy Winehouse exhibition today. But it was a weep, I think, of joy and admiration. Because there is something so loving about the selection of Amy’s personal artefacts which her brother Alex has chosen for the collection. It’s a small and gentle affair, and that’s what makes it so beautiful.

There are obvious items like her most iconic dresses, which reminded me once again how tiny Amy was. Whenever I saw her in the flesh I was always struck by her petiteness. If you’d removed her beehive hairdo there would be almost nothing left of the girl with the huge voice. Her favourite guitar is also included in the exhibition, and how I wanted to pick it up and strum just one chord on it. (I suppose I’d have chosen a D Minor.)

It was the school uniforms of her childhood, one of them complete with name badge on the inside of the neck, that brought my tears up. The garments are so sweet and ickle, and seeing her name written in such an everyday context was a reminder that, beyond the music and the notoriety she was once just a little child, with hopes and dreams in her mind.

Throughout the exhibition, there is a heartfelt written commentary from her brother Alex, which brings to life the affection within the Winehouse family. As has been well-discussed in the media, the Winehouses are not going to win any awards for perfect nuclear-family harmony. But how many of our clans would, and you cannot fake the love and affection which Alex’s commentary gently exudes.

So maybe what I learned about grief today is that it can help one love more and therefore live more. That might sound obvious or trite to you but, as I say, I’m a beginner on a lot of this.

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Shameless Simon Cowell

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“Cowell’s talent is shamelessness, and I say that admiringly,” Newkey-Burden says. “He works in the entertainment industry, where a lot of people tie themselves up in a quest for credibility. He doesn’t give a damn about credibility. He wants money and power and success.”

You can read more of my thoughts on Simon Cowell, including why he is “basically a teenage boy” in today’s New York Post. You can find out more about my bestselling biography of Simon here.

Double boom!

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Boom! James Kirchick calls out propaganda channel Russia Today over Russia’s anti-gay laws.

Boom! Beautiful Bar Refaeli calls out creepy old Roger Waters over his anti-Israel obsession, (which runs and runs).

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And it feels so good

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Why did I find this video of aliyah-making Yemeni Jews arriving in Israel so emotional?

Perhaps it’s because so many of my best Israeli friends are of Yemeni background. Perhaps it’s because they are such peculiarly warm and wonderful people. Perhaps it’s because of the stories they have shared with me of the persecution and troubles their ancestors went through.

Perhaps it’s that. Or perhaps it’s just because I’m a human being and this video is beautiful.

Welcome home, people.

The goy (will be) back in town

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Remember I told you in July that I was a finalist in the ‘Commitment to Israel’ category of the WIZO Commitment Awards?

I’m thrilled to say that I have been chosen as the winner.

Thank you to the judging panel – Dame Stephanie Shirley, Luciana Berger MP, Richard Ferrer and Anat Koren – for choosing me.

Would it be frightfully gauche of me to quote what they said about their decision?

Probably. Here it is, anyway: ‘We found Chas Newkey-Burden’s contribution to improving the understanding of Israel here in the United Kingdom exceptional. He speaks out for Israel not only on his imaginative blog, OyVaGoy, but also via other social networks. His talks and lively presentations on Israel at events, schools and colleges throughout the UK have enabled him to reach diverse audiences including adults and students. We find his dedication commendable.’

It’s so lovely. I’ve had a topsy-turvy year and I feel all warm inside about this. I will be given the award at a Gala Dinner in October. Also, as part of the prize I get a four-night trip to Israel. I’m excited about that as I have not been there for three years.

Thanks to WIZO, and in particular the lovely Ilana who nominated me. Thanks also to everyone who has supported my efforts over the years.

I’m looking forward to being back in Israel. 

Ian Wright, Wright, Wright

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I’m pleased that former Arsenal striker Ian Wright will co-host Five Live’s 606 show this season. Wrighty’s my favourite footballer of all time.

I first interviewed him when I was an awestruck young football writer. I was so nervous I introduced myself twice as ‘Chas from Shoot‘. Wright turned this into a running joke during the interview: when anyone walked past, he stopped them and said: ‘This is Chas from Shoot.’ It was amusing, and also a really sweet way to put me at ease.

Years later, I bumped into him in the corridor after I was interviewed on TalkSport. He said: ‘I was listening – you’re good at radio, Chas’. I told him: ‘I was watching – you’re good at goalscoring, Ian.’ He burst out laughing.

I was there when he beat the Arsenal goalscoring record in 1997. He’d been on the brink of the record for so long, it was such a relief and joy to see him beat it. I loved his defiant attitude to terrace abuse, too. He loved nothing better than celebrating a goal in front of bores and bigots. Even they had enough brains to realise that their abuse had, if anything, spurred him on.

But my favourite Wrighty memory involves my Dad. The day after my Dad and I went to an Arsenal match together, during which the famous ‘Ian Wright! Wright! Wright!’ chant had rung out all afternoon, we were out in the car and my Mum was directing us. She said: ‘Turn left…..no, not left – right. Right! Right! Right!’ My Dad turned to her and said: ‘Who? Ian?’

Thumbs up to you, Dad. And thumbs up to you, Wrighty. Love, Chas from Shoot.

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Really, Bibi?

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Writing on Bloomberg, Jeffrey Goldberg makes two strong points about Israel’s agreement to release 104 prisoners as part of the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians.

Of the Palestinian reaction to the development, he writes: “In other parts of the world, the release of child-murderers from prison wouldn’t be considered a moment of national celebration.”

But Goldberg also points out that the prisoner release would never have happened had the Israeli government simply agreed to a freeze on settlement building. It was only because Netanyahu refused a freeze that the prisoner release was put onto the table.

I’m amazed that Bibi would rather release terrorists – including child murderers, a killer of a Holocaust survivor, bus bombers, and a rapist – than put a freeze on settlement building while peace talks are conducted.

Is it his own intransigence on settlements, or because the settlement movement has him over a barrel?

In one camp we have a leader who demands child murderers be released from jail. In the other, we have a leader who would rather release those murderers than put a pause on some houses being built. And each leader’s groupies swear robotically that the entire problem is the other side.

Hardly bodes well for progress, does it? Stranger things have happened though…

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You talkin’ to me?

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I’ve had some amazing conversations with Israeli Arabs during my visits to the country. One, a young gay guy, burst into tears as he told me how he would have killed himself were it not for the acceptance he had found in Tel Aviv. Another, a tour guide who showed me around the Dead Sea and Jerusalem on my birthday, raged against Hamas, said heaps of positive things about Israeli society, and ended up telling me: “Chas, you’re more Israeli than most Israelis I know.”

I’ve also had some interesting conversations with Israeli taxi drivers. So has my friend Michael Dickson, including two in a row today, which he wrote about on Facebook:

My first Jerusalem cab driver is Jewish, his family has lived here for 200 years, he doubts there will be peace. My second cab driver is Arab, his parents from Lebanon & Iraq; when I ask him if he could declare a Palestinian state tomorrow and be under their authority tomorrow, he tells me at length why he prefers Israel: he says life is good, he can earn money and live well and get access to healthcare and what he needs. He mistrusts Arab leaders and rails against Hamas. He once took a Gazan from there to get treated at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and he told him that Hamas would take medicine that he needed and overcharge him for it. Want to get some perspective? Ask a cab driver…

Amen.

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