‘YOU DON’T FEEL LIKE A NUMBER HERE’

leaders, Rabbi Yossi and Rivka Posen, say they made contact with 150 Jews in the area and have between 30 and 40 regular attendees. With three fridge freezers in Rabbi Posen’s “office” and the bimah stored in the shed, the couple are looking forward to relocating to larger premises.

“Rabbi Posen wouldn’t have moved out to Epping if he didn’t know for sure that there were enough Jewish people in that area to warrant there being a rabbi and a presence there,” Rabbi Odom Brandman, who runs the Chabad of Buckhurst Hill with wife Henny, tells the JC.

And Rabbi Posen notes that many of those involved with Chabad in the area formerly lived in Redbridge or Ilford. He has also come across families residing as far afield as Ongar and Church Langley.

One person had been recruited after following him into a bank on Christmas Eve, having spotted the menorah on his car.

“You can’t know what’s going to happen in Epping. But seeing the success that is possible [in Buckhurst Hill] and the amount of Jews that are out there, it’s just up to you to put in the work and get them to arrive.”

When the Buckhurst Hill Chabad was founded in 2005, events could attract up to 100 participants. Now the core membership is 100 families and the organisation is in contact with more than 1,000 in the area. It has held 25 barmitzvahs in the past two years and struggled to seat the 250 people who came for Rosh Hashanah last year.

Buckhurst Hill is also looking to transfer to “bigger and more purpose built” premises and there is even talk of a mikveh.

Chigwell US’s Rabbi Baruch Davis is well placed to talk about the development of the community in Essex. When he joined the shul in 1997, it had 510 families. Today it numbers close to 900 families (or 1,400 adult members).

“We’re in the happy situation of being too big for our premises,” he says. “So on a Saturday morning now, we may sometimes have four different children’s services and these facilities are very poor. We’re looking to change that.”

Rabbi Davis reports that plans are being formulated to renovate the site to provide enlarged premises.

Rabbi Odom Brandman enjoying a wave of interest in Buckhurst Hill

V STEVEN Sher thought he and his family were “the only Jews in the village” after moving to Epping with wife Lilian and their three children, having previously lived in Buckhurst Hill and Chigwell.

But when Mr Sher’s father died three years ago and he was short of a minyan at the shivah, four people arrived from Epping the couple had never met before.

“It was from there we realised that there was a community – well hidden, admittedly,” the 47-year-old recalls.

“You don’t feel like a number here. You feel like you could be the difference between having

“This is an indication of two things,” he says. “One, the growth of the community over the years and the fact that we have a lot of young families. The second is a statement of optimism going forward that the community has a very strong future.”

At Loughton Federation, chairman Gary Stern reports that since Rabbi Yanky and Rochel Abrams arrived last spring, there has been a “massive resurgence” in membership — from a minyan and not having a minyan.”

The Shers attend both the Epping and Buckhurst Hill Chabads and Mr Sher believes the future will be shaped on the theory of “build it and they will come.

“Once they hit a certain critical mass, then it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

180 families to 220. And the number of children enrolled in its cheder has quadrupled from 10 to 40.

“There are a lot of kids living in the Loughton and Epping areas. Certain parents are not sending their kids to Jewish schools but still want the Jewish identity.”

The Chabad rabbis say that young professionals — and young families — account for a sizeable proportion of the new migration.