Zeddy Lawrence

Zeddy Lawrence, former TV comedy scriptwriter and radio presenter, is now Editor of the Jewish News. He takes a lighter look at life, through his kosher-tinted spectacles.

Wish Me Luck as You Wave Me Goodbye...

Thursday 5th 2009f November 2009

So this is it. After almost ten years at the Jewish News, four of which have seen me serving as editor, I'm finally bowing out. Indeed, I'm already typing this, my last of well over 200 columns, on a strange computer having been evicted from my desk earlier this week by my replacement, Richard Ferrer. Yes, even before Scotty's beamed me down to check out a new planet, Mr Sulu has taken the helm.

And so, the time has come to bid farewell to all my regular readers (Lionel and Hettie Goldfarb from Pinner) and reflect on the past decade.

Without going into too much detail, it all began back in 2000 when I joined the nascent website totallyjewish.com, foisting all manner of nonsense on the Anglo-Jewish public. Who could forget the world's first Jewish soap opera, Baruchside, Six Degrees of Maureen Lipman or even Jewrassic Park, where we asked what became of the celebrity Semites of yesteryear? (Grange Hill's Ricky Simmons, anyone?)

From there, it was a short hop onto the paper doing arts and lifestyle stuff, before somewhere along the line stepping into the editorial hot seat.
Enough about me though, what about the paper? Over the past ten years, I've had the privilege of watching the Jewish News develop and grow into a cornerstone of Anglo-Jewry, like Rakusen's Matzah, Mrs Elswood's Pickled Cucumbers or Rabbi Schochet's Guide to Tact & Tolerance. It may be just 13 years old, but it feels it's been here forever and the weekend wouldn't be the same without it.

The highlights are too many to mention. Having said that, there are a few memories that spring to mind - picking up the free newspaper of the year award, marching in the Salute to Israel parade, boot scootin' in WJR's Kiss Come Dancing event, puffing away in the Community Fun Run and, of course, all those great campaigns we've run. With a mission to inform, entertain and inspire, we've both reflected, and led, communal opinion. With your support, we've helped bring down disreputable politicians, we've collected evidence for the prosecution of hate preachers, we've got anti-Semitic books banned, we've fought to keep meat kosher, we've delivered cheesecake to the Big Brother House, we've raised money to buy an ambulance for MDA, we've crowned community heroes, we've sent Rosh Hashanah cards to Gilad Shalit, and, in just the past few weeks, we've hosted an audience with David Miliband and staged a Simcha exhibition attracting more than 1,500 visitors. Oh, and on top of all of that, we've written lots and lots and lots of stories.

Note the regular use of the word 'we've' in the past couple of sentence. It's time to come clean. I haven't done all of this on my own.

Which inevitably brings me to that point where I say all my thank yous. And by golly there are quite a few... ten years' worth, in fact, of journalists, designers, salesmen and women, management folk, IT boffins and columnists all of whom I've worked with day in, day out to ensure the paper hits the street every Thursday.

I'd love to list them all one by one, but the danger is I'd miss someone out and cause a bigger broiges than that awful occasion when second-cousin-once-removed Milton was sat on a friends' rather than a family table at little Leonard Finegarten's barmitzvah in 1978. Exactly.

And so, let me simply express my gratitude to all the readers who've rung in with their stories over the years, to all the communal professionals who I've had the pleasure of dealing with and, finally, to all my colleagues past and present who have made this such a tremendous experience. And just for once I'm not joking. It's been a blast.

All of which is to say, Zeddy Lawrence... over and out.