acts such as Zoe who had a top five hit with "Sunshine on a Rainy Day" and Pele who had success with "Fair blows the wind for France". Polygram were then bought out and the company was eventually sold to Bertelsmann (BMG) in 1997. Aptitude for fundraising Levy was involved in fundraising from his early life and from the late 1960s for many causes including Jewish and Israeli causes. For this he showed a special adeptness, raising, between 1988 and 1994, £60m for Jewish Care, an amalgam of several Jewish charitable organisations, of which he is now President. Simon Morris, Former Chief Executive of Jewish Care, said of Levy that, when it comes to fundraising, "there's no one better in the country." Levy has been described as the number one fundraiser in the country, and he has raised hundreds of millions of pounds for charitable causes over the years. Political life Levy first met Tony Blair at a dinner party in 1994, hosted by Israeli diplomat Gideon Meir, the two having a common friend in Eldred Tabachnik, a senior barrister (now a QC and a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews) at 11 King's Bench Walk, the chambers founded by Derry Irvine where Blair had trained in the early 1980s. They soon became close friends and tennis partners. Levy ran the Labour Leader's Office Fund to finance Blair's campaign before the 1997 general election and received substantial contributions from such figures as Alex Bernstein and Robert Gavron, both of whom were ennobled by Blair after he came to power. Levy himself was created a life peer on 23 September 1997 as Baron Levy, of Mill Hill in the London Borough of Barnet. Since making his maiden speech on 3 December 1997, Levy has not spoken in a debate at the House of Lords. He has been described by The Jerusalem Post as "undoubtedly the notional leader of British Jewry". He was a founding member of the Jewish Leadership Council, the leadership of UK Jewish community. Levy has close ties with Israeli political leaders. His son, Daniel Levy, was active in Israeli political life, and has served as an assistant to the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and to former Knesset member Yossi Beilin. His son Daniel is now based in the UK and is now President of the US Middle East Project and before that