British Jews and the Dream of Zion

Radio 4, 8pm

During this 60th anniversary year of the founding of the state of Israel there will doubtless be many programmes describing its past, present and future. Few will be as good as this one, in which Jonathan Freedland and assembled experts describe, first, the contribution of Jews based in Britain to the founding of Israel, and then (next week) their attitude to it today. Freedland gathers up the events in a way that brings them to life - popular history at its best. From the millennia of yearning among Jews for a country to call their own, through the writings of Theodor Herzl, in which he articulated that yearning, without being overly concerned about where it was to be found (Palestine would be nice, but Uganda, Tasmania or Alaska would have done), and on to the work of Chaim Weizman, who charmed into life the Balfour Declaration of 1917 which identified that homeland, it's all here, every stepping stone towards Eretz Israel.

The Miracle Berry

Radio 4, 9pm

In the early Seventies an American entrepreneur named Robert Harvey was this close to marketing a natural sweetener that might have killed off the sugar and artificial sweetener industries. Then, in a tale to please conspiracy lovers everywhere, They got involved. Harvey's files were ransacked, the Food and Drug Administration demanded extra tests that Harvey could not afford to carry out, he went bust, and his miracle sweetener, made from a West African berry, died the death. Luckily, plans are afoot to relaunch it, and with good reason - suck the berry and anything you consume afterwards, even a lemon or vinegar, tastes sweet. And its calorific content is negligible. No wonder They wanted it killed off.

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