It’s a royally entertaining 12 months as VIP guests include Charles and Camilla
AS ALWAYS in these pages, amid the myriad fundraising events, rabbinical comings and goings and organisational disputes and delights, we’ve featured many poignant or heartwarming stories.
None more so than one published at the outset of the year, when we reported that Susan Herold had passed on treasured documents that belonged to her mother, Daisy Roessler-Rubin, to Yad Vashem for a project on survivors.
The most difficult to part with, she said, had been poems and drawings by her late mother and her friends.
“My mother loved that book because most of those friends who wrote in it did not survive — this was her only link to the past. But I knew I had to do it for the sake of future generations, because [in some cases, the scrapbook was] the only place you could find that these children actually existed.” Also in January, Baroness Rabbi Julia Neuberger announced her intention to retire as senior rabbi of West London Synagogue, the country’s oldest Reform shul, early in 2020, saying “it is time to let younger people have a go”.
The first of a number of royal contributions saw the Duchess of Cornwall join the 80th birthday celebrations of Jewish Care’s Brenner Centre in Stepney.
“You sometimes go to places which are a bit sad but this place is one of the most uplifting communal centres I’ve ever been to,” she told members. “Meeting all of you wonderful inspirational people has been a real treat. How most of you look so young, I don’t know.”
On a more solemn note, then PM Theresa May’s message for Holocaust Memorial Day was that “at a time when Jews are being targeted simply because of who they are, all of us of any faith can come together in their defence”.
It’s doubtful if the Liverpool FC anthem, You’ll Never Walk Alone, is heard often at a London shul gathering. But there was a rousing rendition by more than 200 Barnet Synagogue members in their farewell to Liverpool fan Rabbi Barry Lerer, who has transferred to the Central Synagogue pulpit. Presentations included a good luck message signed by Jurgen Klopp and the players.
Handing out its awards at a ceremony at JW3 in February, Mitzvah Day honoured a project which demonstrated the scope of its unifying activities.
The tiny Cumbrian village of Hawkshead, which took the accolade for outstanding programme, had invited 160 Syrian refugees for a day of family
friendly events. The project also won the individual award for leader Abigail Mann, a St Albans Masorti member who has a home in Hawkshead.
She said the whole community had got behind the initiative — “everything was donated” — and it had been “life-changing” for all involved. The one difference from elsewhere was that locals tended to refer to it as “green bunting day”.
In a video message to the event, Sajid Javid praised Mitzvah Day as “a beacon of hope”. But the then Home Secretary’s suggestion that the Mitzvah Day team could possibly “sort out Brexit” proved a tad optimistic.
There were challah baking sessions throughout the country in advance of Shabbat UK. The day itself clashed with the North London derby but Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, an avid Spurs fan, said he never thought about competing events.
“I get more joy from the time spent with family and community. And, hopefully, I get to enjoy a good [football] result at the end of it.” For the record, Spurs and Arsenal drew 1-1.
As Manchester Jewish charities received £300k in Lottery funding to fight rising poverty among the Charedi population, the leader of a local family centre reported “families saying they have no beds for their children to sleep on. They have no clothes, no food.”
Better news came from the South Coast, where Brighton Council approved plans for a local “JW3” — an ambitious redevelopment of Brighton and Hove Hebrew Congregation’s New Church Road building to incorporate housing, a new synagogue and a slew of cross-communal facilities.
Brighton and Hove FC chair Tony Bloom — whose Bloom Foundation is backing the project — declared: “We will reverse the vicious cycle of falling membership and the loss of young Jewish families in the city.”
In April, we reported that Jewish Care had taken the decision to close its Finchley home, Rubens House. The charity said it had tried to make improvements to the property, built 50 years ago, but other local Jewish Care facilities offered “higher quality facilities”. Shortly afterwards, a milestone in the £47 million redevelopment of the charity’s Stanmore campus was celebrated with the opening of the 64-bed Anita Dorfman House, offering nursing and dementia care.
Looking to the future, Finchley Reform Synagogue received planning permission to tear down its premises and construct an environmentally friendly religious hub, community centre and nursery in a £4 million project. In Leeds, meanwhile, the Beth Hamidrash Hagadol and Etz Chaim synagogues were said to be in “exciting talks” about a merger.
Shtisel mania hit London as the star of the Netflix-aired Israeli soap, Michael Aloni, addressed sell-out audiences of swooning female fans at London Q&As hosted by JNF UK.
The largest United Synagogue congregation, Borehamwood and Elstree, confirmed Rabbi Alex Chapper as its new senior minister, following the departure of Rabbi Chaim Kanterovitz in late 2018 after a period of unexplained leave. Rabbi Chapper, who originally joined as community minister, wants it to develop into a “truly seven day a week” operation with a wide range of educational, social and cultural activities.
New Stoke Newington Shul unveiled plans for what it believed was the first “pay what you want” membership scheme. “Instead of asking everyone for the same amount, we’re following the example of Moses and the building of the tabernacle,” Rabbi Roni Tabick explained. “We’re asking you to donate whatever your heart moves you to.”
Opening Jewish Blind & Disabled’s latest development in Bushey, the Chief Rabbi said “there cannot be anything more precious than the dedication of such a facility”. The £6.7 million wing adjoins JBD’s existing Bushey property and is the charity’s eighth facility across London, Hertfordshire and Essex.
Joining the small Belfast community for the installation of stained glass windows at the shul, the Prince of Wales was asked by community deputy chair Gerald Steinberg why it had taken more than 150 years for the first royal visit. “I am really sorry we have kept you waiting so long,” the prince replied.
The latest merged congregation in the Redbridge area, Cranbrook United, held its inaugural service, with minister Rabbi Steven Dansky claiming it could be a turning point for local Jewry. The amalgamation of the Redbridge and Ilford US shuls has given Cranbrook a membership base of more than 2,000.
The annoucement by Marks & Spencer that it would be a selling a range of kosher items in selected stores for the first time sparked reader interest. So too did an innovative Chai Cancer Care fundraising campaign in North-West London, with supporters asked to “tap and give” by touching a a life-size cutout of Chai ambassador George Rosenfeld to donate via credit card or phone.
A kashrut crisis on Merseyside was caused by the discovery that the city’s only kosher meat supplier had received regular orders of non-kosher meat for a number of years. Liverpool Kashrut Authority informed community members that “serious breaches of kashrut have taken place at Roseman’s Delicatessen”.
Locals were instructed not to use utensils or ovens used to prepare meat or poultry bought from the deli “until further notice”. Urgent measures were taken to re-kosher communal kitchens. The deli is now operating under new ownership.
X Factor host Dermot O’Leary won the vote of members of the Holocaust Survivors’ Centre in Hendon when he visited to enjoy bagels, rugelach and some inspirational stories. A film from the day was shown at Jewish Care’s annual dinner, which raised more than £5 million.
Liberal Judaism patrons were told of plans to extend its “passport scheme” for young adults by offering a £15 monthly membership affording access to any of its synagogues and tailored social activities.
The Ben Uri made a first long-term
loan from its collection to a non-museum location — the Nightingale care home in Clapham. The Field, The Artist’s
Daughter on a Pony (1906), is a work by Solomon J Solomon, whose family have long connections to the home. Also in Clapham, we reported on the opening of South London’s first Moishe House, a communal home whose residents run events for young Jewish adults.
New graduates from the five-year rabbinical course at Leo Baeck College included Gershon Silins, who describes himself as in his 60s. He observed that the three Liberal congregations he served would benefit from a “freshly ordained rabbi with 30 years’ experience”.
Kosher salt beef sandwiches went back on sale in central London in August with the relaunch of Reubens restaurant in Baker Street. Reubens was bought by by Lee Landau, founder of the S Group kosher restaurant company, having closed in March following a family bereavement. Mr Landau said it had been his mission “to save the last-standing kosher restaurant in the West End”.
Tributes were paid to young cancer blogger Jack Morgan, following his death at 22. Mr Morgan, who had featured in a Chai Cancer Care appeal video, documented his treatment to 25,000 followers on Instagram. Celebrity supporters included Manchester United star Paul Pogba, who visited him in hospital.
In September, the former Merthyr Tydfil synagogue building was purchased by the Foundation for Jewish Heritage with the aim of creating a Welsh Jewish Heritage Centre in a £1 million-plus project.
Reform Judaism’s annual dinner was told of a new congregation, established by the merger of the Shir Hayim Community in West Hampstead and the Willesden Minyan.
Members of Whitefield Hebrew Congregation in Manchester voted to fire both the rabbi and chazan, Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag and Joseph Muller. But both were back in shul on Shabbat, having been placed on 12 months’ notice. “It’s probably going to be an awkward 12 months unless some deal is done,” one congregant observed.
Things were calmer at Barnet United, where the shul’s new rabbi, Samuel Landau, put the alternative in alternative service for the festivals with halachah-compliant Discovery sessions incorporating meditation.
Craig David expressed his admiration for the growing army of young Jewish volunteers at a JLGB celebration at the Roundhouse in Camden. The singer was so impressed by their achievements that instead of a 30-minute set to close proceedings, he performed for double that time.
“I wanted to give these remarkable young volunteers and their families an experience they will never forget,” he said afterwards. “I think I achieved that.”
Chabad moved to expand its operations in Essex by appointing Rabbi Yossi and Rifka Posen to lead the Epping community, citing “massive potential” in the area.
In another royal story, the Princess Royal penned a glowing introduction to a book celebrating the lives of Nightingale House residents. The princess, who visited the home in 2015, paid tribute to residents’ “heroic acts of perseverance and survival” in the Holocaust era and “sheer determination to embrace change at each and every stage of their lives”.
In November, we revealed that a Hertfordshire couple had married under a chupah — 61 years after their civil wedding.
The ceremony at Elstree Liberal shul for Jack and Mina Kossoff was organised after Mrs Kossoff belatedly converted to Judaism, having lived a Jewish life for seven decades.
Elsewhere, Maria Friedman and fellow stars from the Fiddler on the Roof cast entertained at the Norwood dinner. And the £3 million raised was music to the ears of the charity’s leaders.
“We did it because we believe in what you are doing,” Ms Friedman said.