From Hatton Garden to Hod HaSharon: how we clinched a wartime engagement
Israeli receives diamond ring just in time for his proposal – with help from a keen-eyed journalist and a well-connected Brit
Amid the seemingly unrelenting gloom there was rejoicing in a house in central Israel this week when a young couple became engaged, thanks to the teamwork of a kind Brit and this newspaper.
Kobi had bought a diamond engagement ring from Hatton Garden, which his best friend was due to bring to him on 11 October, ready for him to pop the question to his girlfriend a few days later. After the outbreak of war, the friend’s flight was cancelled.
Love makes people bold; that was certainly its effect on Kobi. The IT consultant, who was born in Israel but brought up in Stamford Hill and Edgware, and made aliyah five years ago, found and joined a WhatsApp group for Israelis in London and posted a request for help in finding someone else to bring the ring.
“I really, really want to propose, even now,” he wrote in the post last Saturday, a week after the Hamas attacks, and with the sound of rocket attacks in his ears. “It’s crazy to trust someone I don’t know with an engagement ring to bring to me in the middle of a war but I have little choice.”
A Jewish News reporter saw the post and messaged a well-connected friend with lots of contacts in Tel Aviv, who wishes to remain anonymous. “Yes,” they replied, almost instantly, when asked if he could help. “Someone is flying out tomorrow. I’ll put you in touch.”
Sure enough, the following day Kobi’s mother, Ilana Mansoor, who lives in Edgware, drove to Luton airport with the ring and handed it over. Kobi, 33, who lives in Hod HaSharon, greeted the kind Brit with a bottle of whisky as a thank you gift and took receipt of his precious consignment.
Kobi, who is hugely grateful to everyone involved in helping his proposal go ahead, said it felt “totally unreal that this was being done for me”. Of his relationship with Liron, 32, an accountant he has known for a year, he said: “When you know you know.” And any doubt that he is a real romantic is dispelled when he replies to a question about how they met: “It was a moonlit evening and I was swiping right on an application…”
On 19 October, with their friends around them and with Kobi’s family watching on a livestream, he got down on one knee. For their friends and relatives it was “a dream to hear our news in this terrible time”, Liron said of their engagement.
As for the wedding itself, that will have to wait but the couple are hoping it will happen in three to six months. Something tells us there that, as well as family and friends, there’ll be an extra person on the guest list.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
