UK News

Jewish 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.

Mendel 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]

Students 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. 

In 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 the 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