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UK News

The latest news stories about Chabad Lubavitch from around the UK.

Chabad on Campus Centre to Open at Liverpool University

n1.jpgLiverpool University is to get a new Chabad house for students, bringing the total number of Chabad on Campus centres throughout the UK to eleven.
 
In the coming academic term, Rabbi Shmuly Brown, from Manchester, and his wife Tzivia, from Israel (pictured above), will welcome students providing a ‘home away from home’, as well as offering a full programme of exciting events, including weekly Friday night Shabbat dinners, educational classes and social programmes.
 
The establishment of Chabad at Liverpool University makes Chabad on Campus one of the largest permanent providers of Jewish life for students in the UK with centres spanning the country from Brighton to Edinburgh.

Rabbi & Mrs. Brown will be working in conjunction with Lubavitch of Liverpool's Rabbi Avremi and Golda Kievman. "This is an excellent appointment, and we welcome warmly Rabbi & Mrs Brown to the team of Lubavitch in Liverpool," said Rabbi Kievman who has worked in the city for the past 17 years.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, chairman of Chabad on Campus UK, explained that the "major expansion of Chabad on campus UK over the last few years reflects the urgent need to support Jewish students on campus in the UK at a time when they are facing unprecedented challenges and rising assimilation."

The major growth of Chabad on Campus UK has been made possible due to the generous philanthropic support of David Slager.
 

 

Leeds University Students Celebrate a Belated Bat Mitzvah

leeds2.jpgJewish girls traditionally celebrate their coming-of-age when they turn 12. But last Sunday, seven women at Leeds University played catch-up.

Collecting their diplomas, the women capped a four week course of study at an elegant dinner at the new Chabad Leeds Campus Student Centre. Led by Chana Sorah Danow, Chabad representative to Leeds with her husband, Rabbi Michoel Danow, the women “graduated” with a thorough grounding in the basic mitzvoth, among them kashrut, Shabbat and mikvah.

 “It all started when I was learning with Jodie Sheldon,” said Chana Sorah. “Jodie mentioned that she’d never had a Bat Mitzva.” The two cooked up a mature version of a Bat Mitzvah program, with another six women quickly joining.

“This course has given me much more perspective on what is important to me and what I am going to aim for in life. If someone were to ask me why do we learn these laws and the meaning behind them? I think one of the most important reasons I would say, is to teach them to our children.”

It was another route that brought Sarah Fisher, 21 to the class. A theology student, her course work required her to visit places of worship. After a Christian course mate offered to take her to her church if she’d take her “someplace Jewish,” Sarah was stumped, not sure where she’d find something Jewish on campus. She was more than curious then, when she and a group of friends were approached a boy in a black hat and jacket.

leeds2.jpgMendel Danow, Chana Sorah’s teenage son Mendel, wanted to know if anyone among the group was Jewish. “They all turned and pointed to me,” says Sarah, laughing. Seizing the opportunity, Sarah and her friend attended a Passover seder at the Danows just a few days later.

“I was totally overwhelmed at first” she says, “but something drew me back again and again.”

Today, Sarah is a Shabbat regular, an active member of the Jewish student community, and is continuing to explore her Jewish heritage.

At the dinner, Chana Sorah challenged her first course “graduates.”

“Unlike other courses at university, there was no written test at the end of this course. The real test will be taking everything you learnt in this course and using it to enhance the rest of your life.”

[From lubavitch.com]

 

Yeshiva Students Distribute Matza to London's Jews

nf_7995_214164.jpgStudents of the Lubavitch Yeshiva of London on Kinsgley Way distributed 1,000 pounds of shmura matzah for Passover to Jews throughout the Hampstead Garden Suburb area.

Under the guidance of Rabbi Y Hertz who heads the yeshiva, students were paired together with congregants who drove them door to door to offer complimentary shmurah matzah to local residents for their enjoyment as part of their Passover Seder.

The students who managed to reach out to Jews from all different backgrounds and levels of observance were well-received throughout the area.

The program will continue in the run-up to Passover. Students will visit a number of Jewish schools in London to hand out shmurah matzah to pupils and teachers.

In addition, this coming Sunday, students will visit a six fruther locations throughout North West London, including Hampstead, Golders Green, and East Finchley.

The program was developed ten years ago in lieu of a campaign developed by Getzel Itzinger and Harris Sidelsky to strengthen the awareness of the usage of traditional shmurah matzahs on the Passover Seder night. It has now developed into a wonderful tradition that now enables thousands of unaffiliated families to fulfil this important mitzvah.
 

To see more photos, CLICK HERE

 

Passover Story Comes Alive for Children with Tzivos Hashem's Exodus Experience

exodus3.jpgIn the run up to Passover this year, Jewish children in the UK will get a chance to learn about the festival like they have never been able to before thanks to Tzivos Hashem’s Exodus Experience.

The Exodus Experience – which takes place Sunday 14th and 21st March in North West London - is an interactive, hands-on, educational production which re-enacts the story of the Exodus from Egypt. Audience participation and cast interaction make for a fun, fresh and exiting way for children to learn about the Passover story.

Children take a step-by-step journey back in time 3,300 years. Receiving an Egyptian's costume as they journey, they witness the brutal slavery imposed upon the Jewish people and see how Moses is rescued from the Nile River as well as his encounter with the burning bush.

In addition, the Ten Plagues are brought to life as well as the splitting of the Sea, and a hot and dusty trek through the dessert to Mount Sinai where they receive exodus1.jpgthe Ten Commandments.

After the show children learn the intricate process of baking Matzah by threshing the wheat, kneading the dough and baking their own Matzah.

The Exodus Experience has brought the Passover story to life for thousands of people in major cities throughout the world where it has been presented.

Rabbi Yossi Simon, Director of Tzivos Hashem Craft Workshops said: "Children have come from Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and all over greater London. I am delighted with the response and we look forward to welcoming thousands more"

 

For more information or to book a place, click here or visit: www.exodusuk.co.uk 

 

Ofsted Awards Lubavitch Senior Girls School with Outstanding Ratings

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This week Chabad Lubavitch Senior Girls School received an excellent report from the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted). The report gave a mixture of outstanding and good grades to the Senior Girls School, in particular rating Lubavitch’s quality of provision for pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development as outstanding.

This news is greeted with great satisfaction as Lubavitch continuously strives to encourage students to meet people from all walks of life, taking every opportunity possible to educate students about their own and other cultures (Most recently students contributed to the Haiti fund via the Chabad international network Chabad.org).

 Lubavitch Senior Girls School welcomes visits from guests outside the community and was recently visited by a local Muslim psychiatrist. In addition, pupils engage with the democratic process by visiting sites such as the Houses of Parliament, law courts and, most recently, many visited Hackney Town Hall to watch a planning committee meeting discuss the future of the local Skinners School site in Stamford Hill.

Rabbi Bentzi Sudak, Chief Executive of Chabad Lubavitch UK said: “This achievement is a huge testament to the hard work of all the staff at Lubavitch and especially Mrs Helen  Freeman and Mrs. Golda Junik who have transformed the school to where it is today. Chabad Lubavitch ethos encourages students to take on responsibility, whether that may be organising youth groups, teaching Sunday morning religious classes or giving students the opportunity to voice their concerns and suggestions for improvement at the school council meetings. This report reflects this ethos and is a huge testament to everybody involved at the school.”

Rabbi Shmuel Lew, Headmaster of Lubavitch Senior Girls School said: “The report reflects the quality of our pupils, and the amazing effectiveness of our senior staff and teachers, in bringing out their best. We continually make strides to ensure the education of the children schooled at Lubavitch is of the highest quality. “

Mrs Freeman, Headmistress at Lubavitch Senior Girls School said: “We are proud of all the pupils’ hard work which has enabled us to achieve this wonderful accolade. It just goes to show what you can achieve with hard work. ”

Related Stories

Lubavitch Senior Girls School Comes Out Top in School League Tables
(Thursday, January 28, 2010)

Lubavitch Schools Receive an 'Outstanding' Rating Following Inspections
(Thursday, January 21, 2010) 

 

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