John Galliano was the keynote speaker at a Jewish event held in London, and he had the audience eating out of his hand. Connect - Fashion with John Galliano was part of a series of events organised by London synagogues as a way of bringing Jews and Jewish learning back into the West End.So how, you might ask, did Galliano manage to win over the 220-strong audience? Honesty, modesty and a joke about a smoked salmon bagel.At first Galliano was on trial. Most people in the room last Thursday were acutely aware of the anti-Semitic slurs he uttered in a Parisian bar four years ago - and Galliano looked terrified. His face was pale and his voice shook as he shared with the audience the battle with alcoholism that led to his fall from grace.He said he would be ''dead" if he had kept working at Dior, where he was designing 32 collections a year. Now, he's enjoying bagels in meetings with Holocaust survivor Harry Olmer.''What I've learned from him is how to survive. I've become spiritual. If I can help anyone by talking about it, I want to," he said.Having grown up in a Roman Catholic home in Gibraltar, he also spoke about rediscovering religion. ''I pray and I meditate. I have learned to slow down," he continued.Rabbi Barry Marcus has been working with Galliano for the past two years. He said: ''We all have the capacity for forgiveness. It's soft, it's soppy, but it's also necessary to move on. What do people who lack forgiveness want? Do they want Galliano, who is unquestionably a talented designer, to never work again at the age of 54?"French Jewish designer Nicole Farhi said she was all for forgiving the man she once called her friend. In fact, she came to the event and embraced him.Galliano has been working with Rabbi Marcus and Abraham Foxman, of the anti-Semitism watchdog the Anti Defamation League. He has repeatedly apologised and, at the request of Rabbi Marcus, attended the event that must have been an intimidating experience. ..