Yisroel Shalom died of a heart attack in 2017, but he still has no gravestone to mark his time on this earth. One of his last acts was to gift me some k'laf (parchment) to write a Megillat Esther, which I completed this year. However whilst this is complete, there is still no permanent remembrance for this special man. As a starter I'll be donating what would have been the cost of the k'laf (currently £160) plus my own gift, but that will still leave a fair amount to cover. Yisroel was a bit of a wandering soul always searching, but he was also always there for others, helping out in whatever synagogue he called home.

My father, Rabbi Maurice Michaels writes "Yisroel was one of the most committed and dedicated Jews that I have known. He was on a religious journey, developing a more mature and challenging approach to the different expressions of Judaism. He had researched and examined a variety of traditional rituals and made informed and mature decisions on those he felt comfortable to take upon himself. This had been done with great integrity, even though it put himself at actual physical risk, by being easily recognised as a Jew in a geographical area in London that is not particularly amenable to such people.

Two further examples of the honesty and integrity shown by Yisroel from the time that Judaism became of greater importance to him were, firstly, his name change, whereby he formally took on his Hebrew name as his main name, as it demonstrated his religious identity. It was very important to him that his Jewishness should not be hidden. Second, was his decision to change his professional activities, as he believed that his previous work was inconsistent with his newly developed religious beliefs and morality. These two examples, together with his continued searching, made an enormous impression on me."