Cambridge Hebrew School celebrated the completion of its first academic year this week with a graduation ceremony for close to 30 students and their parents.
The school opened its doors in September 2008 and is jointly run by Chabad of Cambridge and Cambridge Traditional Jewish Community.
Featuring performances by a flautist from the Royal College of Music and a pianist from Imperial College, the Chabad-Lubavitch centre serving schools in the South Kensington celebrated a night of Chasidic melodies last week.
Community members and students turned out for the event, which offered explanations of selected nigunim by Rabbi Naftali Loewenthal, professor of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at University College of London, and Rabbi Avremi Groner, program director of Chabad-Lubavitch of South London.
Jewish communal figures featured prominently the Queen's Birthday Honours list this year with Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin and Dovid Segelman both receiving MBEs for services to the Jewish community.
The list, published last Saturday, recognises outstanding achievement and service across the whole of the UK with more than 70 per cent of awards going to ordinary people – local heroes from a range of fields – who have made a real difference to life in their communities.
Rabbi Aryeh Sufrin, executive director of Chabad of Ilford, receives an MBE for services to Jewish community relations and for his work founding Drugsline UK - a non-denominational organisation providing a comprehensive range of services for those struggling with addiction as well as offering free, impartial support and information to concerned family and friends.
"I feel honoured and humbled," says Rabbi Suffrin.
"It come as a complete surprise to me but gives us more impetus to work even harder to build on this success and broaden the services that we provide."
Dovid Segelman, a member of the Lubavitch community, also becomes an MBE for services to north London Jewry. The Leeds-born mental health outreach worker for Chizuk is an active member of the Stamford Hill community. His voluntary involvements include bereavement counselling and the Hatzola emergency medical service.
In 2000, the Queen honoured Rabbi Nachman Sudak, head Chabad representative in Great Britain, with an OBE "for services to Young People."
Kosher food will be available this year at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships for the first time in its 122 year history.
Rabbi Dovid and Sora Cohen are offering a hot barbecue and cold sandwiches, as well as traditional strawberries and cream, every day of the two week tournament which attracts over half a million people each year.
"When we moved to London to work with students in South London, we didn’t know exactly where we were going to live," explains Rabbi Cohen, who co-directs Chabad of South London Campuses.
"When we found a house just 300 yards from Wimbledon's Centre Court, we knew that we had to do something like this during the tournament."
As well as serving food daily throughout the tournament, there will also be an open home Friday night meal on 26th June, and a special Shabbat programme on the finals weekend 3rd -4th July.
For more information, click here.
Nearly one thousand people joined together on Sunday to celebrate the completion of a new Torah scroll at Mill Hill United Synagogue, London.
Rabbi Yitzchok Schochet, rabbi of Mill Hill United Synagogue, reminded those assembled that the launch of the fundraising campaign for a new Torah scroll coincided with the onset of the credit crunch.
He recalls coming home one day and suggesting to his wife, Chani, that maybe it wasn't the right time to raise money for a new Torah scroll.
"Why not?" she immediately responded.
"The best response to a crisis is something spiritual, especially something as meaningful and powerful as this."
In spite of the worsening financial crisis, the community, which is also in the midst of a £4,000,000 rebuilding campaign, managed to gather thirty sponsors to contribute to the new Torah scroll.
Schochet spoke about the inverted letter nuns from the previous day’s Torah portion explaining: "It reminds us that we live in a topsy-turvy world. When things are in a tail-spin, when the economy is in turmoil, when people are in a state of panic, we always look to the Torah for guidance, for encouragement, for reassurance."
Hundreds of Jewish communities around the world will gather on Sunday, June 14th, to hear a live broadcast of an address by Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former chief rabbi of Israel.
Rabbi Lau - noted author and survivor of the Buchenwald concentration camp - joins Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks and Adin Steinsaltz as the third of four speakers to address worldwide Jewry as part of the Unity Lectures - a series of webcast lectures being held to mark the year of Hakhel (year of gathering).
In the UK, a number of Chabad Houses, student centres and synagogues, will bring together Jews from all backgrounds to participate in the Unity Lectures.
"The last Unity Lecture in March with Jonathan Sacks attracted over 80 people," says Rabbi Cohen of L’Chaim Outreach in Manchester where Sunday’s lecture will be broadcast.
"Following the success of the last one, we are anticipating even more people this time round. Rabbi Lau's personality will appeal to the broad spectrum of people that we cater to and it will be inspirational for us to join in the world-wide Hakhel gathering.”
The Lubavitch Centre of Leeds also plans to screen the lecture.
"It is an opportunity to bring a world-class speaker into our Chabad house to provide a quality lecture for the people of Leeds," says educational director, Rabbi Eli Pink.
The Unity Lectures are designed for people with all levels of Jewish knowledge, and no prior experience or background learning is required to attend and enjoy this series.
The lecture series is a project of the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI), the adult education arm of Chabad-Lubavitch which offers courses and educational programs in over 300 locations worldwide.
For full listings of the Unity Lectures in the UK, click here
One year after the untimely passing of a noted 28-year-old graduate student, Oxford University’s Chabad Society inaugurated its Isaac Meyers Memorial Lecture in Jewish Classics with an address on the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Professor Geza Vermes’ lecture for about 70 students, academics and community members at the David Slager Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Student Centre touched on the scrolls’ controversial history, with the professor – a scholar of religious history who was one of the first experts to examine the scrolls following their discovery in 1947, and authored the standard English translation of the find – advancing his view that they belonged to the Essenes, a Jewish sect that ancient historical sources say lived in the area around the Dead Sea.
Hundreds descended on Chabad centres around the country to participate in a wide array of events celebrating Shavuot – the festival which marks the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mt. Sinai some 3300 years ago.
Communities traditionally gather on the evening of Shavuot to participate in all night learning, while during the day they congregate to hear the Ten Commandments read from the Torah and to eat dairy foods.
This year Chabad centres provided these conventional festive activities as well as attracting a wide range of Jews from all walks of life with refreshing and modern activities.
The giving of the Torah is described in Chassidus as the ‘marriage’ of the Jewish people to G-d. At Chabad of Hendon, they took this metaphor quite literally combining a festive meal with sheva brachot celebrating the marriage of Esther Overlander and Mendel Plotke.
The dinner, attended by over 100 people, was followed by a late night ‘learnathon’ lead by Rabbi Dovid Katz.
“It was the first time I had ever been to a sheva brachot on Shavuot,” says one attendee. “I found it was a really unique way of internalising the message of the festival.”
Many were attracted to Chabad centres for the breadth of learning opportunities on offer. With subjects ranging from the traditional story of Ruth to the modern debate of science vs. religion, there was something to satisfy everyone.
In addition to the usual Torah classes, students in Cambridge enjoyed an evening of Medieval Jewish poetry hosted by Rabbi Reuven and Rochel Leigh.
“This Shavuot was certainly one of the most, or perhaps the most activity-filled Shavuot we’ve ever had,” notes Rabbi Yossi Alperowitz who co-directs Chabad of Bournemouth with his wife Chanie.
“As well as the classes and lots of ice-cream and cheesecake, we held prayer services which attracted over 90 people to come hear the Ten Commandments read from the Torah.”
Meanwhile, students in South London were offered a unique experience by Rabbi Dovid and Sora Cohen, co-directors of Chabad of South London Campuses.
“We hosted students for a cheese and wine evening in keeping with the dairy theme of the festival,” says Rabbi Cohen.
“There were at least two students who had never experienced Shavuot before in any shape or form. One student even heard the Ten Commandments read from the Torah for the first time.”
A £250,000 Chabad centre has opened in Manchester's Whitefield area. A one-year refurbishment has transformed the former off-licence into a facility housing a Jewish resource library, Judaica store, lounge and a multimedia lecture hall.
However, director Rabbi Shmuli Jaffe says the centre's greatest asset is its location. "It is opposite the Parkfield Inn pub, which is full of Jews on Thursday evenings, and its street corner is where the kids are on motzei Shabbos, being the only stretch of Jewish shops in the neighbourhood."
Funding has come from local individuals and some small lottery grants. Rabbi Jaffe hopes the building will become a mini-community centre.
"We officially opened on Lag b'Omer with a community barbecue for 400 people.
"The idea is to cater for the 90 per cent of the community who only go to shul twice a year, according to a survey.” Chabad was offering “a place where people can drop in."
Mother and baby sessions, adult education and kosher takeaway nights are some of the activities planned.
[By Jonathan Kalmus in the Jewish Chronicle]
Shavuot preparations at Chabad of South Kensington, which serves several London campuses, began well in advance of the May 29 holiday. Co-director Rabbi Mendy Loewenthal turned the pulpit over to his college students, who spent two weeks digesting material to lead several classes during the nightlong session.
“It was different from any other studies I’ve undertaken, much more in-depth,” remarked Mark Harris, who attends Imperial College and taught about property rights in Jewish law. “Both because the material is complex and because you have to be prepared to answer questions, I tried to anticipate what others would ask.”
