UK News

The annual Gan Israel Lubavitch Day Camp of Stamford Hill, London, kicks off for its 50th year in just over a week on Monday 4 August.

Camp directors Rabbi Shmuly and Chanah Karasik of Crown Heights, New York, have been running the North London day camp for the past two years.

"This year is a special year for our camp," explained Rabbi Karasik. "The camp is celebrating 50 years of bringing summers filled with fun, excitement and Jewish pride to children from across London."

Camp organisers and counsellors are anticipating more campers than ever before.

"Last year we had 300 campers and this year we’re expecting between 350 and 400," said Rabbi Karasik.

The camp runs for three weeks and caters for boys and girls between the ages of 3 and 11.

Staffed by 50 experienced counselors from all over the world, the camp’s goal is to provide positive role models.

"Our counselors are one of our biggest assets," said Mrs. Karasik. "They give campers an enriching summer experience imbuing them with a deep sense of pride in their Jewishness."

The theme for this year's camp is the 39 melochos (categories of work forbidden on Shabbat) taught in an unforgettable and unique way.

Instead of just reading about them in a book, campers will actually experience all 39 first-hand.

In the first week, campers will learn about what goes into making bread from planting wheat, harvesting it, making flour and baking fresh challah.

The second week of camp will give campers hands-on experience of making cloth with a live sheep shearing demonstration, spinning raw wool into thread and weaving cloth on looms.

The third week will see campers learning how to prepare raw hides into leather and parchment as well as writing with ink and quills.

The camp will finish with a 39 Melochos Carnival open to parents, siblings and friends.

The camp also includes exciting trips, a full range of sports and swimming in the on-site indoor pool as well as specialised arts and crafts, songs and cheers.

To find out more information or to register your child for the camp visit www.lubavitchdaycamp.com

Chabad of Buckhurst Hill hosted its monthly restaurant night attracting close to 140 diners from the local area.

Each month Rabbi Odom and Henny Brandman, with the help of local community members Neil and Alison Cohen and Andrew and Felisa Kennard, transform their Chabad centre into a glatt kosher restaurant.

This month dinners flocked to the Chabad centre for a fantastic range of homemade Chinese foods.

With no kosher restaurants in the local area, the of the local Jewish community have to travel to North West London if they want to eat kosher outside their homes. 

"We have recently been out in Golders Green for kosher Chinese and this certainly compared well in taste and was even better value," commented one happy customer.

At present, plans to appoint a new chief rabbi in Ireland are on hold, partly for financial reasons, and partly, as the community can see that Chabad Rabbi Zalman Shimon Lent, is doing the job himself very efficiently indeed, writes Shira Yehudit Djlilmand in Mishpacha Magazine.

The Jewish community of Ireland, mostly descended from Lithuanian immigrants, has never been large — at its peak in the 1940s the population reached around 4,500 — but has been consistently declining ever since, at least until 1992, when the census recorded 1,581 Jews.

Today, the majority of the Jews are concentrated in Dublin, with only a few scattered around the rest of the country. The driving force of the Dublin community, indeed of the entire Irish Jewish community, is Rabbi Zalman Shimon Lent.

Originally from Manchester, where his family has long been associated with rabbinic, communal, and educational activities, Rabbi Lent traveled widely to many Jewish communities worldwide, working in kiruv, before moving to Dublin with his family in 2000.

There, he took on a dual role, working as director of Chabad in Ireland and concurrently working for the local Jewish community as youth rabbi/program director. This role gradually evolved, and now Rabbi Lent is officially the rabbi of the Dublin Jewish community. Since the former chief rabbi’s retirement last year, he is effectively acting as de facto chief rabbi.

At present, plans to appoint a new chief rabbi are on hold, partly for financial reasons, and partly, perhaps, as the community can see that Rabbi Lent is doing the job himself very efficiently indeed.

The Dublin community, centered around the Terenure neighborhood, has one main Orthodox synagogue on Terenure Road, a shtiebel open on Shabbos and Yom Tov, and a progressive synagogue. There is a kosher l’mehadrin mikveh, a kosher bakery, and kosher food available in the local supermarket.

In addition, Ireland is now one of Europe’s largest exporters of kosher meat, with teams of shochtim living there most of the year. This has, in turn, helped the local community obtain good supplies of kosher meat.

In short, there are all the facilities essential to a Jewish community — including Jewish primary and secondary schools. However, although the school is recognized as giving a good education, due to the small numbers it is now not only coed but also mixed Jewish and non-Jewish.

As a result, Jewish studies are limited to an hour and a half in the mornings, which would cause difficulties for frum families looking for chinuch. As Rabbi Lent said, “The problem for our own children is chinuch — that’s difficult. When our children come home every day they all do a few hours of Internet school — a service provided by Chabad for the shluchim around the world.”

According to many researchers, the native Jewish community is gradually dying out, as the youth seek wider opportunities overseas. “The indigenous Jewish community is basically in terminal decline — there’s no question about that,” reports Carl Nelkin, community spokesman. “The average age is say sixty-five to seventy, and when the kids reach college age, they almost
all leave the country and don’t come back.”

Israeli Irish or Irish Israeli?

According to media reports, since the 1990s, Ireland has seen Israeli immigrants arriving in the hundreds, and even though in recent years, many, such as those who came over with Intel, have returned, still a good number remains.

Moti Neuman is one of the Israelis who has chosen to live in Ireland for work reasons, and has certainly made an impact on the community. Originally from Karnei Shomron, he and his wife moved to Ireland eight years ago. Neuman was then employed by the Israeli high-tech company Amdocs, and was involved in a project for a client in Ireland. The client wanted him to come to Ireland, Neuman and his wife had already visited and liked the area, and so the deal was done.

Three years later, Neuman got an offer from an Irish high-tech company, BMB Technologies, for whom he is currently working.

So how do the Israeli immigrants integrate into the life of the local community? “A lot of the Israelis here are not connected to the Jewish community — they’re not even connected to Yiddishkeit,” says Neuman.

“But Rabbi Lent, who’s the main driver here, is always organizing activities and does succeed in keeping in touch with the Israeli families.”

Often, it depends where the Israeli immigrants are located. as Rabbi Lent explained, “The key is if they live near the shul — if they do, they integrate easily.”

Even outside of the Jewish neighborhood, within Dublin there are Jews, as Rabbi Lent reports: “There is a good crowd of Israelis working for Google here whom we are in contact with regularly.”

If they are located outside Dublin, such as the new Teva site in Waterford, integration is more difficult, although Rabbi Lent makes every effort to keep in contact with them.

Neuman is one of the Israeli immigrants who has integrated well into the community. Neuman is not only a regular mispallel in the Orthodox shul every day but, with his reportedly beautiful voice, is often the chazzan. He also gives regular shiurim, and his wife is involved with giving chizuk to the women of the community.

This is the kind of family that the community desperately needs, to give it life and vibrancy, but sadly, at least for the locals, the Neumans are not intending to stay permanently. “I’m certainly planning to go back. Why? My home is in Israel, my family, my grandchildren. I’ll do what I have to do for the business, and then I’ll be gone.”

Which raises the question, an important one for the native population: Are any of the Israelis planning to stay permanently?

“I don’t believe any of them will stay,” Neuman states, but according to Ambassador Evrony, a number of Israelis have managed to establish successful businesses and have stayed in Ireland.

To read the full article, click here.

The completion of another successful year of studies at the Jewish Learning Institute of Leeds was marked last week at the Second Annual JLI Dinner. 

JLI Leeds chairman John Goodwin chaired the dinner and Sarah Doerfler brought spoke on behalf of JLI students with an incisive look back at the Soul Maps course.

Guest speaker Rabbi Yehoshua Landes, a teacher at Manchester's King David High School, continued the theme of the Biblical Reflections course and took a look at the trials of our forefathers. 

Leed’s JLI programme has experience rapid growth since its inception two years ago.

"It has grown exponentially with over 150 regular participants in JLI events in the past year ," said Rabbi Eli Pink, director of education at Lubavitch Centre of Leeds.

"We have a diverse range of programmes such as JLI 4 Teens, a Lunch and Learn in the City Centre, Unity Lectures featuring web-casts from some of the top speakers in the Jewish world and a host of smaller study groups."

Studies covered Soul Maps on the Book of Tanya, You be the Judge on Jewish Civic Law and Biblical Reflections which was a look back at the early stories of Genesis.

Rabbi Yossie and Chanie Alperowitz have just completed a million pound project, the new Chabad Centre in Bournemouth.

After three years of holding services in rented accommodation while searching for suitable premises, followed by sixteen months of planning and construction, the Jewish community (population: 5,000) of this coastal town in Dorset celebrated the opening of the Chabad Centre’s doors this past Shabbat, July 10.

Some 150 filled the Chabad Centre for a dual celebration as Tzvi Alperowitz celebrated his bar mitzvah.

Rabbi Alperowitz described the achievement as "a dream has come true,” that will now make it possible to continue to "grow and expand the Rebbe’s work in Bournemouth."

The new centre, with a well stocked library, accommodates Shabbat and daily services, adult educational classes, children's classes, and a host of programs and activities for the youth and elderly. A well equipped commercial kitchen will provide kosher catering services, further enhancing Jewish life in Bournemouth.

 "It has already brought new life and excitement to the community," said Mrs. Chanie Alperowitz.

[From Lubavitch.com]

Rabbi Nachman and Freida Holtzberg – parents of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg who was murdered with his wife Rivka in terrorist attacks that claimed 170 in Mumbai last November – embarked on a four-day speaking tour this week in London.

Speaking in synagogues, schools, private homes, businesses and to local rabbis and communal leaders, the Holtzbergs inspired those they met with a message of hope and faith in the face of tragedy while raising awareness and support for the efforts currently underway to rebuild the Chabad House in Mumbai.

On Sunday evening, some 300 people gathered at Lubavitch House in Stamford Hill to hear Rabbi Holtzberg speak at a farbrengen (Chassidic gathering) in honour of the Yud Beis Tammuz - the day marking liberation from prison of the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, in 1927.

From the outset, Rabbi Holtzberg made it clear that he would not be delivering a hesped (eulogy) given the festive nature of the occasion. Instead, he chose to focus on stories demonstrating the outstanding achievements which his son and daughter-in-law managed to accomplish with self-sacrifice in their short lives.

"The ahavat yisrael (love for one’s fellow) of Gabi and Rivki was amazing, but we should not wait until we are in Mumbai to have that ahavat yisrael," Rabbi Holtzberg told the crowd.

"We can do it in London too, do not wait until tragedy strikes, but do it now, in good health and spirit."

"Everyone knows what happened in Mumbai and it was therefore understandable how Rabbi Holtzberg presence at the farbrengen would bring a sense of solemnity and even sadness,” reflected Yisroel Nyman, a lawyer who attended Sunday night's event.

"Nonetheless, he emphasised that this should not be a sad occasion and shared many positive and moving anecdotes from his son's life which gave us a glimpse into his inner world. He challenged us to learn from Gavriel and Rivka's example and to aspire to strive for a greater level of devotion and self-sacrifice in our own lives."

The following day, Rabbi Holtzberg spoke to members of the Lubavitch women's organisation, N'shei Chabad, at Beis Chana Women's Centre in Stamford Hill.

Rabbi and Mrs. Holtzberg were only scheduled to spend 48 hours in the North London Jewish community before continuing their journey to Israel.

However, upon hearing about a synagogue in North West London named in honour of their son, they decided to extend their trip in order to meet its congregants.

"We knew they were flying off quickly after speaking in Stamford Hill, but we were adament that we had to meet Rabbi and Mrs Holtzberg to speak with them about our synagogue,” explained Rabbi Menachem Junik, rabbi of Beis Gavriel Lubavitch synagogue in Hendon, North West London.

"Thank G-d, they were impressed by what we have established and agreed to extend their trip to speak to our members about Gavi and Rivki."

On Tuesday night, Rabbi Holtzberg spoke to a crowd of men and women in the home of David Abramson, a founding-member of the Beis Gavriel synagogue. A number of those present had travelled in India and met Gavriel and Rivka in Mumbai along the way.

"When people spoke about their own memories of Gavi and Rivki, I realised how close to home this terrible event was despite the geographical distance," remarked Adam Pomson, a member of Beis Gavriel synagogue.

"Rabbi and Mrs Holtzberg's determination to turn an act of hate and destruction into something positive and empowering shows the strength and resilience not only of themselves but of the Jewish people as a whole."

Rabbi and Mrs Holtzberg used the unexpected extension to their stay in London to spread their message to as many people as possible.

Rabbi Holtzberg met with local communal leaders, including Dayan Chanoch Ehrentreu who served for many years as head of the United Synagogue Beth Din.

He also spoke to young professionals at a lunch-and-learn in the global accountancy firm Deloitte and to students at a number of schools in London, including Hasmonean Boys’ School and Beis Yaakov Girls’ School.

"The terrorists tried to take something away from us, and though it was an unspeakable tragedy, they did not succeed," he told students and teachers.

"Our faith and our spirit cannot be destroyed. That is our message."

Expert fundraising consultant Rabbi Yisroel Brod delivered a seminar for close to thirty UK Chabad emissaries last week.

Arranged by Lubavitch UK head office, the seminar forms part of a new fundraising initiative to support Chabad institutions in light of the recent global financial crisis.

Rabbi Brod covered a number of areas including budgeting, project management and building relationships with donor to assist Chabad emisseries to create financially stable institutions.

 "It was informative and enlightening," said Rabbi Odom Brandman, co-director of Chabad of Buckhurst Hill in East London.

"Fundraising is a necessary part of our job, but not something we always enjoy," remarked Rabbi Brandman.

"The seminar provided me with a lot of encouragement and helped to build my confidence. It also provided a good opportunity to catch up with my colleagues from around the country and to exchange ideas."

"The event was professional and well organised," said Rabbi Eli Pink, educational director of the Lubavitch Centre of Leeds.

"It was very important for me as someone who is just starting out in fundraising. I was impressed most by the fact that what he was teaching isn’t just found in secular sources, but is also thoroughly based in traditional Jewish learning and the Rebbe’s teachings."