JC’s ‘Secret Shulgoer’ is mourned by hundreds

HUNDREDS OF mourners attended the funeral last week of Rina Wolfson, teacher, scholar and writer, who died on Kol Nidre night after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May 2020.

Ms Wolfson was a community leader at New North London Synagogue and worked in marketing and communications for the Masorti movement.

As a Jewish Studies teacher, she instructed children for their batmitzvahs and for GCSE. She was researching a PhD in Biblical Art as Visual Commentary.

But to readers of the JC, she is best known as a writer and — it can now be revealed — the reviewer behind our ‘Secret Shulgoer’ column, which ran from 2017 to 2020.

In that time, Ms Wolfson visited 40 synagogues, rating them for warmth of welcome, decorum, service and kiddush.

Since her diagnosis, she had written a blog on Facebook called ‘Nobody needs another cancer diary’, written with her characteristic wit, honesty and humour. In her heartbreaking final post, she wrote about the pain of leaving behind husband Paul Harris, a son in his 20s and 10-year-old twin daughters. “As my daughters inch towards the pre-teen years, I see occasional flashes of who they will be as adults,” she wrote. “I feel like Moses surveying the Promised Land from the distance of Mount Nebo. ‘Look’ says God, ‘Isn’t it magnificent? This is what you cannot have.’

“And so, in the face of this, I try to focus on the things that I can have. Family weekends away to Bournemouth and York. Friday night dinners with good friends. Date nights with Paul. “Special time with family and friends, both here and those visiting from Israel. Shopping for a frock for the wedding. Ice cream in the park and walks round the block with the girls. There is still so very much to enjoy.”