New Editor at 'The Jewish Chronicle'

The UK's JC is the world's oldest surviving Jewish newspaper

Stephen Pollard, editor of The Jewish Chronicle for 13 years, has stepped down but will remain as 'editor-at-large'. His successor, Jake Wallis Simons, also writes for The Spectator and broadcasts on Sky TV.

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Meanwhile, I am personally saddened to learn of the passing of John Izbicki, a former education editor and Paris correspondent of The Daily Telegraph. He was 91. 

Izbicki, a Holocaust refugee who settled in the UK, was a first-class writer,

Suave and urbane to a degree, Izbicki possessed a very fetching throaty speaking voice that he acquired in the most horrible way possible. He recalled how in his memoir and also in a piece he wrote for the JC in 2018.

I cannot recall exactly when but he once visited my home in Bury, Greater Manchester accompanied by a mutual friend. His mother and my paternal grandfather were then both resident at a home in Southport, Lancashire.

I offer any surviving relatives my sincere condolences or as we say in Anglo-Jewish tradition a 'long life'.

NATALIE WOOD
11 DECEMBER 2021