From Buckhurst Hill to Epping
Essex community is less engaged, less religious and so much more spread out.”
Concurring, Rabbi Posen notes: “There are people who have decided that they like the greener areas of Buckhurst Hill and Epping. For them, a 20 minute drive to shul, when they go, is not the end of the world.”
Nonetheless Ms Rose maintains that the Redbridge-based Jewish schools — Ilford Jewish Primary, Clore Tikva and Kantor King Solomon High — are “very much the heart of the community”.
Mr Bloom — a governor at Clore Tikva, where his two daughters are pupils — reasons that “because of transport links, maybe you don’t need to live on top of [Jewish amenities] anymore, because you can still get to them in your car, or by bus or train.”
From Chigwell, Mr Sinclair says it takes him “two minutes to get to Buckhurst Hill, five minutes to Loughton, and about 15 minutes to Epping. I don’t think the community is as spread out as people think it is.”
Whatever the take on distance, Rabbi Brandman sees the area as a “fully connected community”. To further that connection, Ms Rose has set up
EssexK, a 1,900-member Facebook group. Rabbis in the area meet every six-to-eight weeks and have a WhatsApp group.
“We have a very good working relationship,” Rabbi Brandman says. “There’s no competition as such.”
At Loughton, Mr Stern refers to the two Chabad centres as “our partners, rather than separate synagogues”.
Rabbi Davis observes that “in Buckhurst Hill, Rabbi Brandman has succeeded in attracting a lot of individuals, including some of our own members who were not so motivated when they were here”.
What of the future? Rabbi Brandman says that with Chabad well established in Buckhurst Hill, “some more traditional Jewish people who may not have moved here five years ago have now moved here”.
Mr Sinclair — whose two children attend “play date” at Buckhurst Hill Chabad on Mondays — says the changing demographics demonstrate that “at the end of the day, Jews still want that community”.
For Rabbi Davis, the Jewish population “is a significant number and you can’t write off a number like that. And a lot of them feel passionately about the community and they want to make it work. Judaism in country Essex is very much alive — and it’s growing.”
People have decided that they like the greener areas ’