UK News

It’s back to university across the United Kingdom as students return to classes for the beginning of their summer term. Among them are an estimated 10,000 Jewish students, who last weekend began filling Shabbat tables at campus-based Chabad-Lubavitch centers on every major university in the country.

Each of the 10 Chabad Houses, having just emerged from the largest collection of Passover celebrations in recent memory, have formulated an array of programming with something for everyone, from relaxed get-to-togethers over shwarma to film screenings and one-on-one study sessions.   Continue...

A record number of over 2,000 attended Passover seders with Chabad in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland following a coordinated publicity campaign.

As well as the interactive and content-laden PassoverUK megasite, which was available for the third year running, Chabad emissaries throughout the United Kingdom joined together to create an advertising campaign in the lead up to the festival.

The advertisement, with the tagline "There’s a Place for You at Our Seder Table," provided readers with a link to the PassoverUK website and telephone hotline through which they could find a seder nearby and reserve a seat.

In London, large crowds of close to 1,000 people in total packed… Read More »

Although Passover fell outside universities’ class schedules this year, campus-based Chabad-Lubavitch centres throughout the United Kingdom still had overflowing tables for the traditional Seders, with approximately 800 British Jews and Jewish visitors attending communal gatherings from Edinburgh to Leeds.

Large crowds descended on festive meals in London, where international students had their pick of community Seders. Chabad of Bloomsbury had more than 140 people on the first night of Passover, while Chabad of South Kensington hosted 90 people at Boston University’s satellite campus in the British capital.   Read More »

Heavy clouds and rain looked set to dash the hopes of Jews gathering in London and Leeds wishing to celebrate the once-in-28-years mitzvah of birkat hachama - thanking G-d for the sun as it returns to the position it occupied when it was created.

However, by 8am on April 8th, the skies had cleared leaving London "basking in sunshine," says Rabbi Levi Sudak, director of Lubavitch of Edgware.

The London ceremony, which took place in the grounds of London’s historic Kenwood House, attracted Jews of all ages and backgrounds from the immediate area and across the capital. The proceedings were led by Rabbi Levi Sudak and accompanied by the cantorial talents of Chazzan Avromi Freilich of Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue.

The… Read More »

Students from South London took an exciting trip this week to learn how shmurah matza is made in the heart of North London’s orthodox Jewish community.

The outing to the Belzer chassidic matza bakery in Stamford Hill was the idea of Rabbi Dovid Cohen who, with his wife Sora, established Chabad of South London Campuses in 2008 to serve the needs of Jewish students on seven campuses in the south of the capital.

“I worked in a matza bakery when I was a yeshiva student in New York,” explains Rabbi Cohen. “Most people eat their matza on Passover and don’t give much thought to how it is made. When I spoke to the students about it, they were interested to see how it is done. So, I thought why not show them… Read More »

Tomorrow Jews around the world will undertake the once-in-28-years mitzva of Birkat Hachama - thanking G-d for the sun as it returns to the position it occupied when it was created.

To mark this rare occasion, Lubavitch of Edgware will bring together Jews from across the capital to observe the mitzva of Birkat Hachama at London's historic Kenwood House.

This won’t just be a gathering restricted to Jews in London. The London gathering will be beamed live around the world as part of a live broadcast uniting Jewish communities from East to West.

The live broadcast will begin in Christchurch, New Zealand, which will one of the first Jewish communities in the world to say the blessing at 20:00 GMT.

"To be the first to… Read More »