rosh hashanah 2015 / 5775

rosh hashana 5776 | 2015

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Rosh Hashana 5776 | 2015


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mosaic | the magazine of the new west end synagogue

IN 1907, Rabbi Avraham Kook (first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandatory Palestine, 1865–1935) wrote a Halachic treatise entitled Eitz Hadar, discussing the etrogim grown in Eretz

Yisrael and the importance of avoiding grafted etrogim. He advocated the use of etrogim from Eretz Yisrael as a way for world Jewry to strengthen its connection to the land of Israel and support its fledgling communities.

In this essay, he explains that the holiday of Succot as a whole is integrally connected to the sanctity of the land of Israel and our joy in its fruit. The Sages ruled that an extra month may be added to the year to ensure that Succot will fall out during the harvest season.

The connection of the Succot holiday to Eretz Yisrael is especially strong in the etrog fruit. In the land of Israel it is easy to fulfil this mitzvah with joy and beauty. Maimonides suggested that one reason that the Torah chose this particular fruit was its wide availability in Eretz Yisrael.

Our Sages teach us that the four species of the Lulav represent four different types of Jews:

1 The Etrog has a good taste and a good fragrance. It represents a person with both wisdom (Torah learning) and good deeds.

2 The Hadas (myrtle) has a good fragrance, but is inedible. It represents a person who has good deeds, but lacks wisdom.

3 The Lulav (date palm) is edible, but has no smell. This represents the person with wisdom, but without good deeds.

4 The Aravah (willow) has neither taste nor smell. It represents a person with neither good deeds nor Torah learning.

I once heard from Rabbi Mordechai Pearlman that Rav Kook taught that it was these particular four species that were taken together at Succot to show that all four types of Jew were needed to build Israel – just one type of Jew alone

would not have been enough.

Here at the New West End, we have all sorts of congregants with all sorts of qualities – I wouldn’t dream of suggesting which one has which quality – but we need every one of you.

And every single person can do something to help the shul grow. There are those who can read a Haftarah (or would like to learn how to do so – if so, please contact me), there are those who help on security or tidy up after the Kiddush, there are those who plan and execute events, there are those with creative or technical skills, there are those who are great with kids, and some who are great with adults, and there are also those wonderful few who help us attempt to get a weekday minyan…we appreciate each and every one of you. Together we can make the shul stronger. We need all of you to make us the community we are and the community we should be, and we’re always happy if anyone feels like doing a little something more.

Together with my wife Shana, I wish Rabbi Freedman, Chazan Jonathan Garcia, the Executive, the Board of Management, and the entire community a happy and healthy New Year.

‘In the land of Israel it is easy to fulfil this mitzvah with joy and beauty.’

CONTACTS & CONTENTS

CONTACTS minister Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman

chairman Henry Magrill

vice chairman Felicity Miller

financial representative Elise Horowitz

warden Jonathan Skry

board of management Natalie Cutler Tony Dinkin Stephanie Featherman Penny Levinson Gavin Lief Rachel Magrill Toni Nagel Jonathan Paisner Michael Sharron Angela Skry David Slovick Debbie Talalay Michael Talalay Trevor Toube

representative at the board of deputies Dori Schmetterling

administrator Michael Wahnon

beadle Eli Ballon

CONTENTS Message from the Editor

Message from the Chief Rabbi

Message from Rabbi Freedman

Message from the Chairman

US President: Working together to build our future

Imaginary Travels: Take iv

Recipe: Honey, coffee & walnut cake

Social & Personal

Happy New Year

US Women: A change would do you good…

Desert Island Discs: Maureen Lipman

Parallel Thinking

Writing the Story of Your Life

The Board of Deputies of British Jews

Connect

The New West End 1929-45

Yom Tov Guide

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MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR

Eli Ballon editor

1. the etrog

2. the aravah

contact us t 020 7229 2631 f 020 7229 2355 e [email protected] w www.newwestend.org.uk @NWESynagogue New West End Synagogue


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AT the height of our High Holyday services we will declare: ‘Penitence, Prayer and Charity can avert the evil decree’. We will recognise that prayer is a central, fundamental and transformative

ingredient of our Jewish experience. According to the Talmud, prayer is ‘worship of the heart’ and one of the pillars upon which the world stands.

During the past year I have enjoyed wonderful prayer services in numerous communities across Great Britain and the Commonwealth. In recent months I have begun engaging with our Rabbis and other community leaders to explore ways in which we can stimulate added enthusiasm for tefilla, including, for example, seeking to encourage Batmitzvah and Barmitzvah celebrants to have greater knowledge of and proficiency in our tefillot.

The Hebrew term tefilla, is, however, significantly different from the English ‘prayer’, which is derived from the Latin precari, meaning to beg or entreat. The root of tefilla is the Hebrew word ‘pileil’, meaning to judge. It is found in the Torah in situations in which action has been taken or an intervention has been made. For example, in recounting the famous Biblical story of Pinchas’ intervention when he encountered a couple engaging in an adulterous relationship, the Book of Psalms states ‘Vaya’amod Pinchas Vayefalel’ – ‘Pinchas stood up and intervened’.

From here we learn that tefilla is far more than words spoken in supplication to or in praise of God. The reflexive ‘lehitpaleil’, means to judge or to analyse oneself. Through self-evaluation we engage in a constructive and healthy activity that can re-fashion our lives. Tefilla affords us the opportunity to take a long, hard and honest look at ourselves in the Divine shadow of God’s presence, where nothing can be denied or hidden; to differentiate between what we want and what we need; and to give voice to our deepest hopes and aspirations, resolving to work passionately to achieve them.

Sometimes, those for whom tefilla is second nature can pray as a matter of routine and can struggle to find genuine

meaning in what they are saying. Conversely, those with less grasp of the liturgy sometimes find that a catchy melody or special atmosphere provides them with great inspiration. It is revealing that as we finish the ‘Amidah’ we say, ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You.’ Neither the words nor the sentiment alone are sufficient – both are required together to be truly impactful. This is something that everyone of us can achieve. 5775 has been a challenging year for Jewish communities at home and abroad. Murderous attacks on Jewish communities in Europe have left many feeling vulnerable and concerned. None of us can change the world overnight, but we can change ourselves, which, in turn, does indeed transform the world we live in. Tefilla provides us with the key to unlocking that potential if we can approach it with the requisite humility and vigour.

May we all merit to discover the great beauty and value of tefilla, so that we begin 5776 with renewed positivity and sense of determination. Valerie and I extend to you all our very best wishes for a happy, healthy, peaceful and fulfilling New Year. Shana tova.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF RABBI

Ephraim Mirvis chief rabbi

‘None of us can change the world overnight, but we can change ourselves, which, in turn, does indeed transform the world we live in.’


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MESSAGE FROM RABBI FREEDMAN:MY EMAIL TO GODDear Friends,

Please see my email correspondence below.

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rabbi Freedman <[email protected]> Date: August 16, 2015 20:18:27 BST To: God <[email protected]> cc: Moshiach <[email protected]>, Heavenly Court <[email protected]> Subject: Requests for the coming year Dear God,

I trust you are keeping well. I am writing on behalf of the Jewish people to make a few requests for the coming year. I realise that it’s probably a busy time with the Yom Tovim coming up very soon and all that, but we are told that this is an especially good time to talk to you and make our requests, so here it goes.

1. Please could you make sure we live through the year? We all have so much we want to achieve and while I’m sure that Heaven is a nice place to be, we can do so much more in this world. Not only that, but we can enjoy so much of life here. For instance, the latest Hunger Games movie is coming out in November (Mockingjay Part 2). I don’t know if it’s your cup of tea, but I can’t wait to find out what happens! There’s also a sequel to Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger coming out next year and I’m sure I speak for most people when I say that I would really hate to miss it.

Also, could you make sure that our families are all safe? We want to watch our children and grandchildren grow up and enjoy them for many years to come. They mean so much to us – more than we can express.

2. Please could you help keep us fit and healthy during the coming year? After all, what’s the point of life if one spends it in suffering? Pain is so debilitating and no one likes to see a loved one endure it or have to go through any type of illness. The odd cold would be fine and we will obviously try to stay out of trouble by eating healthy foods and exercising, but the rest really is up to you.

3. Please could you ensure that we all have enough money to live comfortably, after all, the more we have the more we can

give to tzedakah, right? I realise that the economy is not what it once was, but a bit more cash would really help to pay the bills.

4. I know this is a biggie, but could you please make our politicians and journalists have a little bit more sense. I know it would involve some type of open miracle, which strictly speaking are no longer allowed, but you are the Almighty, right? If I have to listen to the news when they’re talking about Israel one more time, I might just blow a gasket!

Seriously though, it’s really painful to watch Israel being slandered, vilified and defamed. We love our little country, even with all its imperfections. We don’t need the rest of the world to love Israel, but if they could just be a bit more balanced, that would be really appreciated. If that’s too much, could you at least make the UN stop being so biased and prejudiced towards Israel? At least that would be a start.

5. While we are on the subject of Israel, could you help to stop Hamas and all of the other terrorist movements who are threatening both Israel and the rest of the world? It’s in all of our interests and I don’t see how we can find a solution by ourselves. They are responsible for so much suffering and hurt, it is almost too much to bear. We all hope that we will live to see an end to human suffering and pain and I hope you’ll agree that it would help us serve you better in the future.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. Please do let me know if any of this is possible. Shanah Tovah u’metukah – have a good and sweet New Year.

Kind regards,

Moshe

Begin forwarded message:

From: God <[email protected]> Date: August 16, 2015 20:18:28 BST To: Rabbi Freedman <[email protected]> cc: Moshiach <[email protected]>, Heavenly Court

<[email protected]>Subject: Re: Requests for the coming year Dear Moshe,

Thank you so much for your email. It was so great to hear from you, after all, it’s been such a long time. I cannot tell you how every day I long to hear from you and all of your friends. Please do pass on my regards to them and tell them that I think about them all the time – literally! If they ever, ever want to be in touch with me, tell them I’m available any time, any place in whatever language they like (after all, I created them all so it should be obvious that I understand them)! They don’t have to worry about feeling “religious” and all that malarkey. I just want them to be in touch.

With respect to your requests, of course I want you to all live through the year. However, while I cannot reveal the reason that some people will live the year out and others will not, it might be a good idea to focus a bit more on the mission I set your forefathers over 3,300 years ago.

rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman


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There’s probably nothing wrong with going to a see couple of movies although I’m not giving you psak (a halachic decision); best to ask your local orthodox rabbi for that! But there is a purpose to life beyond the physical pleasures of movies and popcorn.

Try to think about what your lasting legacy will be: Did you devote time to helping others or did you focus mainly on yourself? Did you use your time wisely or did you waste it? Just imagine what a dying person would do for a little more life. Did you try to build relationships with other people? It’s one thing with the people you love, but what about those who may have wronged you during that past year? No one is perfect, but I promise measure for measure, if you can forgive others for their shortcomings, it will help me forgive you for yours.

I realise that the whole thing about health is difficult for you to comprehend. I can’t tell you why some people suffer with illnesses and other tragic and terrible things. Please trust me when I tell you that with your finite minds and therefore finite understanding of the world, you would simply not be able to grasp it. If you could, you would be just like me, and there can only be one God. Just rest assured that I love you all and when you cry, I cry with you. However, I saw that you copied in the Moshiach (Messiah). I can guarantee that when he arrives, everything will make perfect sense.

With respect to money, I guess that one is really up to you. I decide on Rosh HaShanah how much you will get based on how much I think you need for the coming year. All I can do is remind you of the laws of tzedakah and that I promise to repay those who spend money on Shabbat food and the needs of others. People who misuse their money or keep it for themselves when there are others in need have squandered a tremendous opportunity to help.

You may be wondering why I created politicians and journalists at all. I do understand. Put it this way, they give the Satan a lot to do. Only joking! The truth is, most of them are great people and simply want to do their job. Some of them actually do a lot of good. But they are also human and subject to the frailties that all of you have.

I know that there are some who are very antagonistic to our cause, whether they are anti-Zionist or just atheist. By the way, I can’t wait to see the look on their faces when those atheist guys meet me for the first time! Sorry, I digress. Please try to understand that they too serve a purpose. If you want them to recognise and accept your connection with the Land of Israel, bear in mind that I promised you that land in the same Torah that contains all of the methods by which you can connect with me – the Mitzvot. I’m not asking you to be perfect, but if you want to get non-Jews to respect you, the best thing to do is to respect your Judaism. If they see that you are not really serious about me or engaging with our rich heritage such as celebrating Shabbat and our festivals, they will question the rest of Torah too.

As for the UN: forget it! I have basically given up. As you rightly point out, open miracles are off limits and that’s one storm you’ll just have to ride. The terrorists are also a tough nut to crack. Once again, I have my reasons but there is one piece of advice I can give you which will cover all

of these requests, but it may sting a little too, so hold on to your hats.

I want to help, but as your heavenly parent I would be spoiling you if I handed everything to you on a silver platter. You have to make a bit of effort. You can’t just keep on blaming me for all of the world’s problems or pretend that I’m not there when I gave all of mankind free will to do what they want. The truth is I am really careful not to punish you straight away for your indiscretions, you know, that whole “slow to anger” thing. But one thing’s for sure, all of your actions in the physical world have a knock on effect up here in Heaven.

I realise you can’t be an angel and never do any wrong – besides I have enough Angels (and if I didn’t I would just create a few more). But here is my advice: you have asked me for all this stuff, which is fine. In fact it’s great. It shows you recognise me as the ultimate source for all of this. But I can’t just say yes to everything. Just as a parent can’t promise they will buy their 7 year old the latest iPad or a pony for their birthday, I will tell you this:

If you decide to do one extra thing this year – and really mean it – it will go a long long way to helping. Don’t think I won’t notice – I’m omniscient, remember? But we have to start somewhere. Every parent knows that if you spoil a child, you rob them of the opportunity to learn how to work for things themselves. Parents may think they are showing love, but in fact, those parents prevent their children from developing positive character traits because the kids think they are entitled to whatever they want, without putting any effort in. It actually weakens the relationship between parent and child. The same is true with me and you.

Oh, and one other thing. Don’t feel you have to wait until next Rosh HaShanah to ask me again. Like I said at the beginning, I can’t wait to hear from you. I love it when you talk to me and ask for things. You can ask me for whatever you want, any time. Looking forward to seeing how things progress. Shanah Tovah.

With infinite love beyond anything you could imagine,

God

Wishing you all a year filled with blessing and success.

Rabbi Freedman, together with Shaya, Yossi, Akiva and Motti


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ABOUT a year ago I received a phone call out of the blue from Rabbi Sam Taylor who is the Community Rabbi at the Western Marble

Arch (WMA) Synagogue. He was floating the idea of a joint project between the WMA, Central and New West End communities for a series of educational events. He had already been in touch with Steven Leas, his counterpart at Central, and wanted to know if NWE would ‘ join the party’.

His initial suggestion was for a series of shiurim running in each of the three shuls in rotation – for example, on the siddur, gemarah, Jewish history etc. – with supper provided during the evening. I have to say that I was not over-enthused at the idea but we had a long chat in which I suggested that we would be more likely to attract NWES members if the subject matter was more broadly based and secular and if a major ‘name’ could be found for each event. Sam took all of this on board and said he would be in touch.

Yom Tov came and went and I had all but forgotten about the project when I had another phone call, this time from the Chief Rabbi’s Office inviting me to a meeting a few days later at his home to discuss the project.

Although Rabbi Freedman had not yet taken up his post with us his appointment had been confirmed, so he and I represented the NWES at the meeting. Somewhat to my surprise, Rabbi Mirvis expounded much the same philosophy as I had regarding the likely attractiveness of major secular speakers as opposed to purely Halachic topics. He also had much to say on the general approach to organising a joint project, not least of which was that it is important to hold the events on ‘neutral’ territory i.e. not in the shuls themselves, as otherwise they will be largely attended only by members of the host shul.

A few weeks later Rabbi Freedman and I attended a follow-up meeting at Central when the principal order of business was to form a Steering Committee for the project, made up of delegates from each of the three participating communities. They ideally wanted people with specific skills to offer. I subsequently asked Felicity Miller and Caryl Harris to represent us, which they both agreed to do. Felicity is an organiser par excellence and Caryl runs Creative Interpartners, a top class design agency responsible inter

alia for the design of the Mosaic you are now reading and for the NWES website.

At this point I bowed out of active involvement but the results of those first few discussions are there for all to see. The first event of the newly created ‘Connect’ project was on the subject of Fashion, with John Galliano as the principal guest speaker, and the second was about Terrorism with Professor Peter Neumann. Both events followed a similar pattern, with three smaller sessions to start with, followed by refreshments and then the plenary session with the keynote speakers. Our own Rabbi Freedman presented one of the sessions at the Terrorism event.

The events were held at the magnificent offices of BDO Stoy Hayward in Baker Street who not only donated the premises but also made a substantial contribution to the costs of food etc. Funding was also received from the Chief Rabbi’s Office. Huge numbers attended, especially at the Fashion event when some 200 people were present and there was a waiting list of over 100 more! Photos from the two events can be found elsewhere in this edition of Mosaic.

The success of Connect will, we hope, form the basis of many future co-operative ventures between the three Central London United Synagogues but we must not forget that we have our own educational programmes too. Rabbi Freedman has started two already.

First, we have enjoyed ‘Parallel Thinking’ in which he draws on his scientific background to compare and contrast science and religion. So far we have heard the first three of a six part series covering Creation, Evolution and Chaos Theory, all of which were very well attended and enthralled the audience.

‘Spirits and Spirituality’ is held every Shabbat after the Kiddush in the Rabbi’s home, at which aspects of our prayers are discussed, accompanied by various beverages. The enthusiastic discussions are lubricated by, amongst other things, caramel vodka which the Rabbi has introduced to an appreciative audience at the NWES.

So it has been a busy and successful few months since the arrival of Rabbi Freedman and we look forward with confidence to many more innovative projects and programmes.

Rachel and I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Henry Magrill chairman

‘The success of Connect will, we hope, form the basis of many future co-operative ventures between the three Central London United Synagogues’

AS we approach Rosh Hashanah it is a good time to take stock of what has been happening in the US. Our wonderful Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, has now been in this role for two years and he

continues to inspire and support our communities and as an ambassador to the wider world. It is a great privilege to work with him and also with the highly respected Dayanim of the London Beth Din. Our new Chief Executive, Dr Steven Wilson, has been with us almost a year. He is already making a massive contribution to the professional team and together with many other staff and lay leaders, he is driving the implementation of the actions in our Strategic Review. Our Trustee Board has completed their first year and I am in my fifth year of six as your President. The months and years fly by and we are impatient to implement the recommendations aimed at ‘building vibrant, engaged communities at the forefront of British Jewry.’ Once again I would like to thank everyone who played a part in the Strategic Review, led by the indefatigable Marc Meyer.

We have also benefited from several new Rabbinic appointments both at Senior and Assistant levels. Our Rabbonim are the key agents of change for our Shuls and we see many examples of communities being transformed under their leadership. We already have some great examples of strengthening of our local shul communities. Thanks to two forward-looking mergers this year we have welcomed Redbridge US (previously Clayhall and Newbury Park) and Woodford Forest US (previously Wanstead & Woodford and Waltham Forest Hebrew Congregation) into our family of communities. They are now going from strength to strength helping their members to lead fuller Jewish lives. Meanwhile, major milestones have been marked this year with Golders

Green celebrating its centenary and with Borehamwood & Elstree and Alei Tzion their 60 year and 10 year anniversaries respectively. These amazing communities are jewels in the crown of our organisation and I wish them a hearty Mazel Tov and continued success for the future. Membership of all these communities and many others is increasing and we welcome our new families warmly.

The passion and enthusiasm in US shuls is so important in building the vitality of the wider Jewish community. When only a couple of months ago, a group of neo-Nazis tried to organise an antisemitic rally in Golders Green, the Jewish communal response was united and robust. I believe that the vibrancy of our local communities played a crucial part in this. We continue to be challenged by a small number of extremists who are intent on disrupting our lives. Together with our partners in the CST and the police, we are responding to these challenges as vigorously as we can, whilst recognising that the vast majority of British society are peace-loving people who are equally concerned about these extremists.

Every day throughout the United Synagogue our staff, lay leaders and countless volunteers work together to produce outstanding activities that touch the whole of UK Jewry. One fine example of this is ShabbatUK, which we are all gearing up for on 23rd and 24th October 2015. Last year it was wonderful to see thousands of people embrace Shabbat UK with their friends and families. This year ShabbatUK is set to be even bigger with the opening event, the Great Challah Bake on 22nd October, set to break all records.

Finally, as always, we look to our future; our youth. Through the work of Tribe and Young US we are investing in inspiring and engaging the next generations of our community. The Tribe activities are more popular than ever and are including more of our youth. They are supported by US Futures whose fundraising efforts this year included the wonderful ‘Run Rabbi Run’ team at the Maccabi Community Fun Run.

Cheryl and I wish you and your family a Shana Tova Umetuka – a happy, healthy and sweet new year.

Steve Pack president the us

‘The passion and enthusiasm in US shuls is so important in building the vitality of the wider Jewish community.’

WORKING TOGETHER TO BUILD OUR FUTURE

Imaginary Travels

take iv | chronicles of the new west end book club by mike talalay

Who am I? Who are we?

Identity is one of the key issues of the modern world. The problem manifests itself in a myriad of ways. To begin with, it is the result of freedom. If your place in the social order is pre-defined then what choices do you have? In Europe of the middle ages, you were peasant, noble, or churchman. Your identity was set by where and when you were born. Only the Jew was outside this social order. In another sense, your identity is a function of your backstory – back to the founding history, or legend, of creation. Not the creation of the universe, but rather the origins of your ‘tribe’. Be it Romulus and Remus suckled by a she-wolf, or Jesus on the cross, or Gabriel dictating to the Prophet, or Moses leading the

exists and why has it been included in Genesis? What meaning does it have for the question of identity?

Confused? Then try reading A Guide for the Perplexed: A Novel. No, this isn’t a retelling of Maimonides. This book, by the American writer Dara Horn, directly addresses the issue of identity through memory. Are we a product of our memories? And are these memories selective? To answer – or at least to discuss these questions – Horn gives us the Genizah. Twice. On the one hand, there is the Cairo Genizah, that collection of manuscripts, letters, shopping lists, and random jottings all dumped unceremoniously in the storeroom of a synagogue somewhere in the Egyptian capital. What do these

Hebrews out of Egypt, our founding stories provide both a communal and an individual identity. On a more personal level, our identity emerges out of our interaction with the people around us. Who we think we are influences how we deal with our fellows; and the reciprocal is equally potent: how we deal, or fail to deal, with the people we meet profoundly influences our identity. And we have multiple identities, not always compatible. So what happens to identity and meaning when our social structures dissolve, when our legends evaporate, when our existence is overturned, or when our minds are confused?

Last year’s book club ended – indeed climaxed – with Irvin Yalom’s The Spinoza Problem. Existential philosophy derives directly from the writings of Spinoza. Who are we? Who am I? Where do I fit into the grand scheme of things? Is there such a grand scheme? Does the universe have any meaning?

These are the questions that almost all of this year’s readings address, some tangentially, some explicitly. On a tribal level, Irving Finkel sails us through the story of The Ark Before Noah. Who could ever have imagined that deciphering cuneiform could be so much fun! Why does the book of Genesis recount the story of the flood? It’s certainly not original. It comes from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which itself ‘borrowed’ the story from even earlier writings of the Sumerians and Akkadians. The historical ‘truthfulness’ of the flood is not what is relevant for our journey; what does matter is why this story

all say about our past and hence our identity as Jews? Horn also has her heroine create a computer programme called Genizah, which can record and play back all the minutiae of our daily existence. Does this actual record reflect our past in a more or a less meaningful way than our selective and edited memories? Is our identity a function of what we did or what we remember we did? Your decision, reader.

Either way, identity cannot be removed from memory, as Meir Shalev points out in My Russian Grandmother and her American Vacuum Cleaner. The book is a memoir about growing up in Israel in the early days of that country. As Shalev writes towards the end, ‘I am still the son of farmers from the Nahalal, just as my mother would remind me and repeat often.’ Wherever he goes as a person and as a writer, his identity cannot be removed from his background, from his mother’s drumming that background into his consciousness, and from his memory of both.

Identity can also come from dislocation. In this sense it can be a journey, both geographical and psychological. This is the theme of Gary Shteyngart’s self-loathing, often bitter, but very funny and ultimately redemptive tale of growing up as a Little Failure. Born in the Soviet Union, coming to America as a young boy, starting Jewish school as a Russian immigrant, almost drowning in the melting pot of a secular and selective New York high school, surfacing somewhere in the mid-West at a small liberal arts college with a ‘down-home Alabama’

girlfriend, and finally emerging from a semi-permanent drunken stupor into the light of publishing success, Shteyngart chronicles his own crises of identity – as a Jew, as a writer, as a Russian immigrant, and as a human being.

Shteyngart addresses identity and dislocation. Giorgio Bassani, on the other hand, writes about identity as a function of location. In The Garden of the Finzi-Continis as well as in two novellas leading up to that cloistered garden, Behind the Door and The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles, he chronicles the life of the Jewish community in the Italian city of Ferrara in the years between the wars and particularly during the late 1930s, when Mussolini’s dictatorship promulgated the racial laws against the Jews. Bassani writes in the first person, without ever giving his narrator a name. It may be Bassani himself; it may not. In this sense, we are immediately confronted with an identity problem: is the work autobiographical, which would give it one meaning, or is it the product of the author’s imagination, which would give it a significantly different meaning? Like Shteyngart, Bassani places a great deal of importance on physical location. Every page is heavy with street names and descriptive detail. For Shteyngart, however, the locations challenge and threaten and disorient him. For Bassani, on the other hand, these locations are comforting; they give meaning and often solace to his characters. Bassani’s hero is strongly rooted in time and place. Then along come the Fascist race laws, and everyone’s identity is overturned. It is, or at least will be, a long slow descent away from freedom into darkness – as we know and as the author writing long after the war foreshadows. His identity as an Italian is questioned and his identity as a Jew becomes a threat to his very existence.

Bassani is a writer of gloom and claustrophobia. His characters, to slightly paraphrase T.S.Eliot, poet and anti-Semite, ‘measure out their lives in coffee spoons’. Very different are the larger-than-life individuals in Ayelet Gundar-Goshen’s One Night, Markovitch. Writing in the style of magic realism, Gundar-Goshen takes a leaf out of the Salman Rushdie stylebook and weaves her fantastic images into the true story of young Israelis sent to post-war Europe to marry Jewish girls and thus bring them

back legally into Palestine. One of her heroes, Zeev Feinberg is defined by his magnificent moustache and his enormous appetite for love and lust, first for Rachel the wife of the village butcher and then for Sonya, his own wife to be. Sonya herself smells of oranges; her identity mimics the orange groves of Israel. Zeev’s best friend is Yaacov Markovitch, who marries and then won’t grant a divorce to the beautiful Bella. His identity is defined by Bella’s refusal to sleep with him. Only towards the very end of the novel does she tell him, ‘one night, Markovitch’. There are no coffee spoons in this novel. Where Bassani’s hero wouldn’t dare to eat a peach or roll his trousers up and walk along the beach, Zeev and Sonya wouldn’t hesitate to take their clothes off and do more along the beach than walk. Their identity comes much more from what they do and where they are going rather than from where they’ve been.

Gundar-Goshen is saying that your identity can be what you create for yourself. And this idea brings us full circle to Finkel and his ark. Zeev’s moustache created his identity. The morality tale of the flood helped create an identity for the Jewish people.

The book club is flourishing. Our numbers are increasing. Do join us next year for what promises to be another interesting journey. Our next book is The Leonard Bernstein Letters, but where we go after that is still unknown. All we can promise is that our literary travels will undoubtedly be full of interest.

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mosaic | the magazine of the new west end synagogue rosh hashana 5776 | 2015

LA CUCINA DI SILVIA COOKING FOR THE SOUL

ingredients+ 2 free range eggs + 200g white caster sugar + 200ml clear/acacia honey + 120ml sunflower oil + 120ml strong black coffee/espresso + 2 tbsp rum/cognac + 1 orange, grated zest + ½ teaspoon of cinnamon + Pinch of salt + 300g white flour – ideally ‘00’ grade + 1 tbsp baking powder + 300g walnuts, roughly chopped

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cooking directions 1 Preheat the oven to 180°C.

2 Beat the eggs with the sugar, then add the honey, oil, coffee, rum/cognac, orange zest, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Mix well by hand or with an electric mixer.

3 Add the flour and baking powder and mix gently to amalgamate the ingredients.

4 Finally add the walnuts and gently fold them in.

5 TIP: Keep a handful of walnuts to spread on top of the cake just before putting it in the oven for decoration.

6 Take a 24 cm (9 inches) round spring form baking tin and cover the base with greaseproof paper. Pour the cake mixture into it and spread on top the remaining walnuts.

7 Bake in the oven for 50-60 min until dry when a skewer goes in. Leave on a cooling rack for 20 minutes before removing from the baking tin and plating it into a round cake platter.

8 Serve either warm or at room temperature, on its own or with a scoop of ice cream or sorbet.

la cucina di silvia cooking for the soul

t 07867 802 169 e [email protected] w www.cookingforthesoul.com

time: 1 hour, 20 minutes serves: 6-8 as dessert

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image: jennifer balcombe


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We regret to announce the following deaths:

Mrs Freda Herman Mr Maurice Kovler Mrs Poppy Potel Mr Leonard Waldman We extend our condolences to:

Mrs Natalie Cutler on the loss of her brother Mrs Rebecca Djanogly on the loss of her brother Mrs Talia Lief on the loss of her mother Mrs Sandra Kovler on the loss of her husband Mr Joseph Potel on the loss of his wife Mr Simon Rose on the loss of his mother Mrs Annette Waldman on the loss of her husband

המקום ינחם אתכם בתוךשאר אבלי ציון וירושלים

May the Almighty comfort you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

We have introduced the practice of reciting Memorial Prayers to recognise the generosity of those who have left legacies to the Synagogue in their Wills, and who will be permanently acknowledged in our Yizkor Book.

We are extremely grateful to those congregants who have made bequests, which enable us to maintain and preserve our beautiful Synagogue together with its activities.

If you would like to make provision in your Will for the future benefit of the Synagogue please contact the office.

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM

We offer a very warm welcome to the following new Members of the Synagogue:

Mr Michael Etherton Miss Sharon Frank

Mazeltov to all who were married at the New West End over the last few months:

Miss Cassie Grundman and Mr Daniel Krendel Miss Phillipa Bloom and Mr Alexander Ross Miss Juliette Collins and Mr Nicholas Steele Miss Dani Degen and Mr Ben Snowman Miss Stephanie Kluk and Mr Howard Stern Miss Marina Ehrlich and Mr Simon Cohen Dr Monica Samra and Dr Oliver Ziff Miss Candice Palmer and Mr Joshua Ross-Field

SOCIAL & PERSONAL

Pauline and Haydon Noble on the birth of a grandson

Chloe Mount and Ben Brown on the occasion of their wedding and to Ben’s parents Lynn and Charlie

Lily Paisner on her Bat Mitzvah and to her parents, Susannah and Jonathan and grandparents Judith and Harold Paisner

Lord Harry Woolf on being made a member of the Order of the Companion of Honour

Louise Mirwitch on being awarded a CBE for services to Midwifery and Maternal and Child Health

Annie and Tom Cohen on their son Simon’s wedding to Maria Ehrlich

Sharon Frank on the birth of twins, Suzie and Ben

Martin Lewin on his 80th birthday

Alex Miller on his Bar Mitzvah and to his parents Felicity and Frank

Neva and Arnold Temple on their 68th wedding anniversary

Richard Graham on his 70th birthday

Isabella Weinstein on her Bat Mitzvah and to her parents Maria and Bruce

Natalie and Michael Cutler on the engagement of their son Leon to Katie Lipton

MAZEL TOV TO

NEW MEMBERS

MARRIAGES

The Board of Management along with the members, as well as visitors to the NWE, wish to thank all those

who have sponsored Kiddushim over recent months. The Kiddushim provide a time to make new friends and catch

up with old ones. We would like to thank you all!

Mr & Mrs Boris Gofman Miss Frances Graham Miss Angela Williams


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IT’S not often I find myself quoting Sheryl Crow but it is at this time of year, when we find ourselves embracing familiar routines, such as food, family, shofar and food again I

daresay, that we take a moment during the prayer services to think back and reflect.

There is a huge emphasis placed in Judaism on continuity and tradition. Our calendar is filled with chagim, festivals, we celebrate year-on-year with a commitment to the rituals and the details. Whether it’s the Pesach Seder and its ceremonial procedures, hearing the Megillah on Purim or the sweet taste and crunch combination of the first bite of apple dipped in honey over Rosh Hashanah.

We need those traditions. Their familiarity gives us comfort taking us back to our own childhoods where things were so different. No internet, no mobile phones, no iPad! Yet these rituals were the same as they were 30 years ago or even 300 years ago. The Jewish people have always been a wandering tribe, true we settle in some places longer than others, but our traditions and our Torah have kept us together. And it’s not just the chagim. Shabbat, our weekly gift of a mini-break, begins the same way for millions of families all over the world: candles, kiddush, challah (and chicken soup - the fourth unofficial mitzvah!). As Ahad Ha’am said: ‘More than the Jewish People have kept Shabbat, Shabbat has kept the Jewish People.’ This weekly pause helps us retain our collective Jewish identity, allowing us to reflect and connect.

The Hebrew month of Tishrei is filled with festivals, traditions and repetition – in the tunes we enjoy in the davening or the meal we break our Yom Kippur fast with. Crucially and perhaps seemingly contrary, this time for traditions is also a time for change. Rosh Hashanah, meaning the head of the year, has the same root as the verb ‘to change, Lishnot’. Now is the start of a new year, an opportunity to change something about ourselves for the better.

At US Women we are gearing up for some significant change as our elections take place in November. Once every three years, they provide a chance to change the make-up of the

Executive with familiar faces stepping down and new women, bringing new ideas and energy, joining. Two people who will be saying goodbye are our co-chairs Dalia Cramer and Leonie Lewis. Chairs for six and three years respectively, they have overseen significant change for good, working tirelessly to ensure women can now stand as chairs of their Synagogues and Trustees of the United Synagogue. They have encouraged the creation of the ‘Female Jew’ educational roadshow, attended by hundreds of men and women, giving members of the United Synagogue a chance to learn more about Halacha and women’s participation in the community.

Above all, Dalia and Leonie have been role models for girls and women about how they can get involved in the community to make a change for good, and I doubt they will rest on their laurels. Dalia has already committed to hosting this October’s Great Challah Make for Shabbat UK, following on from the success of last year; and Leonie carries on as Director of JVN (the Jewish Volunteering Network). While they will both be missed, by stepping down they allow for change and for new women to step up with fresh ideas on how we can ensure more women across the United Synagogue feel a connection with their local and national community.

The US Women elections are in November and, as everyone knows, a group of people offering different skills and experiences will make the organisation stronger and more successful for us all. What can you bring to US Women to help the next generation of United Synagogue girls feel passionate about their Judaism? Are you a creative mind that can help initiate new campaigns and programmes to ensure more women connect? Perhaps your planning skills are renowned – we need them for our events! Or maybe your leadership skills at work are second to none – now is the time to use them in the community and inspire more women to find their place and role within Judaism.

If this year, the Jewish year 5776, is a time you would like to change something for the better and help our community grow stronger, contact us about the forthcoming elections and how you could get involved. Sheryl Crow gave us a good song, and the shofar is giving us a good wake up call. A change would do you good…

A CHANGE WOULD DO YOU GOOD…

Lauren Hamburger sits on the us women’s executive

The Elections and TGM will take place on Tuesday 24th November. Email [email protected] to tell us about your ideas


RABBI FREEDMAN together with SHAYA, YOSSI, AKIVA AND MOTTI would like to wish the community a happy and healthy New Year and a well and meaningful fast. We hope and pray that the year ahead will bring ברכה והצלחה, blessing and success in everything we do.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Wishing the Rabbi and the community a peaceful and happy New Year – ZARA BRICKMAN

VALERIE GREEN wishes all the community and Rabbi Freedman a happy and healthy New Year

Happy New Year from GAVIN, TALIA, JONTY AND DYLAN LIEF

Wishing friends and family a healthy New Year and well over the Fast – DENISE AND MELVYN LUX

MAXINE & MICHAEL MARGOLIS and Family wish Rabbi Freedman, the Honorary Officers and the entire Community a happy and peaceful New Year

HILDE AND JONATHAN MATHESON and LINDY PER of Melbourne wish Rabbi Freedman and all their friends at NWES a happy, peaceful and healthy New Year

SANDY AND DAVID MONTAGUE wish everyone at the New West End peace, health and happiness

A happy New Year to you all – HAYDON NOBLE

We wish the community a healthy and happy New Year – COLLETTE, DAVID AND JORDANA AND KEELY PRICE

MRS PHYLLIS SHAPRO AND STUART wish the community a peaceful and contented New Year

Wishing Rabbi Freedman and all friends at NWE a happy and healthy New Year – VALERIE RICHMAN

MARCELLA SPELMAN wishes her friends a very happy New Year

Happy New Year to all from THE STEINFELD FAMILY

Wishing the Rabbi and the community a wonderful New Year – ALEX AND ADIE BEARE

Wishing all my friends a happy and prosperous New Year – BOBBY JAYSON

With our best wishes for a healthy, happy and peaceful New Year to all our community – LINDA AND MARTIN LEWIN

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Desert Island Discs

with Maureen Lipmanby trevor toube

She talked about her career, about how she had landed one of her first jobs by pretending that she was about to take part in some filming – and that the man who hired her later confessed that he had known she had lied, and cast her in the role because of her chutzpah! Her breakthrough had come with the series in which she played an agony aunt; she had wanted to play a part in which she could be a different person each week, but what the public wanted was for one to remain the same, with the same catch-phrases. ‘Oklahoma!’, from which we heard ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Morning’, had been another high point; being in a ‘hit’ had been a different experience from anything in her previous career.

She talked about being Jewish. She claimed that she was not ‘religious’, but was adamant that Friday nights, when ‘the children come home’, was important to her, as was Shabbat, a ‘stopping time’. Her role as Beattie in the BT television advertisements had turned her into a ‘Jewish actress’,

her for another hour – even though the food was waiting! Just as in their previous event, the Committee provided an excellent meal. We had been greeted on arrival with Pimm’s and popcorn, which had kept us going until the end, when there was salad and large hot dogs [‘vegetarian alternative available’], followed by fruit salad and ice cream.

An excellent evening’s entertainment.

Sunday evening, 28th June 2015, saw another triumphant event for the Fundraising Committee.

No-one who knows anything of the Desert Island Discs castaway, Maureen Lipman, would have expected anything less than an entertaining evening. The fact that NWES had secured her services for the evening as a result of a chance encounter between her and a member of the committee in a local shop was an extraordinary coup.

The expert interviewer, Richard Suchet (of Sky News, among his many other roles), elicited from her not only the expected amusing anecdotes about her life and career, but also moments of real pathos, for example when talking about her parents or her late husband.

What stood out most for me, though, was her zest for life and commitment to her art. Or ‘arts’: she described herself as ‘an actress who writes’. She explained that, for her, comedy is always fuelled by anger, and that we are here to create.

recognised as such wherever she went. She commented on the fact that much Jewish music is in a minor key – bringing with it a sense of sadness even on joyful occasions. And her passionate defence of Israel and her political involvement with the State struck a strong chord with the audience.

After being enthralled for some 90 minutes, I think the audience would all have been prepared to listen to

‘what stood out most for me, though, was her zest for life and commitment to her art.’

maureen lipman with derry dinkin and richard suchet

above: peter featherman and michael sharron on pimms duty right: richard suchet and maureen lipman on the night

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‘On Rosh Hashanah it is written, and on the fast of Yom Kippur it is sealed’ – This is the central refrain to Unetaneh Tokef, probably the most famous prayer in our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. The haunting melody that accompanies these words entices us to reflect on our actions and attitudes of the previous year.

But why use the metaphor of writing and sealing to describe our judgment? The simple answer is that we are comparing the proceedings of the Heavenly Court with that of an earth-bound human one. Though a judgment may have been written by human judge, it is only sealed and acted upon if there has been no successful attempt to appeal. Similarly, on Rosh Hashanah our judgment is only written, but if we commit to improve our ways before the end of Yom Kippur then there is a chance it might be changed before finally being sealed.

To bring these words up to date we might, I suppose, say, ‘On Rosh Hashanah it is typed, and on the fast of Yom Kippur it is uploaded.’ Nevertheless, I think there is something important about the actual metaphor of writing. It says in Ethics of the Fathers (Pirkei Avot 4:25):

‘Elisha ben Abuya said: When you learn as a child, what it is like? Like ink written on clean paper. When you learn as an adult, what is it like? Like ink written on blotted paper.’

The message of this little aphorism is clear, children learn more easily as there is less cluttering their minds. Blotted paper is paper that has been written on a number of times with ink and then erased. Thus the paper is dilapidated and it will be harder for new ink to adhere to it when written upon again. Similarly, we find it harder to learn and recall as adults than when we were young.

I would like to suggest that this might also apply to the books that God, metaphorically, writes us in on the High Holy Days. If every year we regret our mistakes, aim to improve come Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and then just fall back into those same mistakes again right after, then our names are constantly been written and erased in God’s books. And that means that every year it becomes harder for our names to stick.

They become fainter and more difficult to identify.

For me, this is a profound image. The inability to commit to a consistent and growing religious path undermines the strength of your name – that is, who you are, your very identity. Only commitment to a path, a derech, allows you to really have a name. And the pace of progression is much less important than the fact you are actually on a path at all. I think this might be why Maimonides placed the following verse on the top of the introduction to his Guide for the Perplexed, probably the most profound book for Jewish philosophy ever written:

‘To the person who sacrifices a thanks offering to Me [God], and sets a path for themselves, I will show them My salvation’ (Psalms 50:23)

In other words, God will respond to a person who is willing, (a) to recognise and appreciate God, and (b) to commit to a sustained plan of action and growth.

With this in mind, Rosh Hashanah cannot just be a repeat exercise of the previous year. It must become a reinforcement and gradual development of a consistent path. i.e. we should be going somewhere rather than just coasting.

The final irony is the personal life of the author of the Mishnah from Pirkei Avot mentioned above. Elisha ben Avuya, left the Jewish path, rejecting God and Torah. Though he was learned and insightful, religious patterns of behaviour and commitment never sealed in him. He was constantly rewriting himself until his very name was lost. Eventually he was just known as acher, literally, ‘other’.

Rosh Hashanah is the day of Jewish identity: when we admit what we truly value, when we reveal our real commitments, when we live up to our names.

May we all be inscribed for Life.

LSJS run a range of courses for people of all ages and levels of knowledge. You can also train as a teacher or study for a BA (Hons) or MA in Jewish Education. For more information visit www.lsjs.ac.uk

Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum dean of the london school of jewish studies (lsjs)

BeRosh Hashanah yechatevu, uv’Yom tzom Kippur yechateimun

WRITING THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE

with rabbi freedmanby alex miller

I’m not going to provide for you a blow-by-blow account, partly because we don’t have the space, partly because I don’t want to spoiler you, and partly because you should have come to hear it yourselves... maybe we can get the video of it up on the website?

I also am not going to give you what he terms ‘a crash course in evolutionary biology’, although it was easy to follow those hereditary traits, as well as understanding the reasons for mutations. (This is a subject close to my heart, as my deafness is caused by a hereditary mutation – thanks Mom and Dad for that one.)

Rabbi Freedman’s question was – if the Torah states that the Earth is 5775 years old – but obviously man has existed for far longer than that, particularly in his earlier forms of Homo erectus and Neanderthals! How are we to resolve this with the science? The Rabbi states that the 5775 years is measured only

from the creation of Adam. But until then, ‘humans’ were just animals. They had no soul, nothing to rein in their baser instincts. Adam changed that, and he was the first true human, one who had a soul. The earlier humans i.e. before the year ‘0’ were no better than animals. (It sounded much more convincing when he said it!)

This succeeds well, in my opinion, in reconciling science and Torah (at least over this particular conflict) without compromising either.

It was an excellent evening, and I would recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in science or religion. Come along to the next talks in the series. You won't regret it! The next session will take place on Tuesday 13th October when Rabbi Freedman will be discussing Neuroscience and Free Will. For further details, please see the shul website.

The Rabbi’s Parallel thinking series, in a nutshell, aims to understand both science and Torah, and then reconcile them (under the understanding that the science is right). As a rabbi with a PhD in Medical Physics and Engineering, he does rather seem perfectly qualified to do both halves of this.

The talk that I attended was entitled ‘Evolution and Design’. No Intelligent Design for this rabbi. Instead he set out to explain why there is no need to ignore science in order to be a Torah observant Jew.

Rabbi Freedman began by explaining evolution, touching on Darwinism, genetic theory and even some heredity in his own inimitable style. (He is a particularly good PowerPoint user, which isn't the easiest thing to do.) Having thus explained the science, he then went on to see if it was reconcilable with the Torah.

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בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ

ויהי ערב ויהי בקר יום הששי

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Saturday 24 October 9.15AM TRADITIONAL CHORAL SHABBAT MORNING SERVICE led by jonathan garcia

This Shabbat will be extra very special, as we’ll also be celebrating the bar mitzvahs of Piers and Liam Lee!

All members and visitors welcome. Will end at about noon.

10.45AM CLUB SAMEACH

Special Shabbat entertainment with games and songs

We will be running two groups: one for all kids from 0-5; the second for 6-13 year olds.

12PM KIDDUSH

The whole community is invited to kiddush. Lots of food for all.

Pre-booking requested for catering purposes. Free.

1PM ‘CHOMP & CHALLENGE’ LUNCH hosted by rabbi moshe freedman

Communal Shabbat lunch in the Herbert Samuel Hall featuring Rabbi Freedman’s ‘Chomp and Challenge’

- a chance to think while we eat!

Pre-booking essential for catering purposes.members: £7 per adult, £18 per family non-members: £12 per adult, £30 per family

Shabbat is a central part of Jewish identity, with powerful, uplifting and transformative qualities. Shabbat UK is a nationwide initiative which harnesses the goodness and uniqueness of a traditional, authentic Shabbat and invites Jews around the country to celebrate it in a way they never have before, regardless of their level of observance.

Following the success of last year’s Shabbat UK initiative, join us for another amazing and transformative Shabbat.

AT

We will be led by our rabbi, Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman in a fantastic 25 hours (or longer if you join us on the Thursday to make challah together, and stay for the after-party).

Take a look at our programme of communal events and come and be part of it by joining in with any, or all, of the options below!

Thursday 22 October THE GREAT LONDON CHALLAH MAKE

This evening will be an exciting opportunity for you to make challahs to enjoy on Shabbat, together with 1,000s of other Jews!

venue: Brent Cross time: Doors open 6pm. Challah making from 7pm to 9pm. cost: £10 – People will need to be able to stand for 2 hours (chairs limited).

book online at: www.shabbatuk.org/challah-make

contact: [email protected] if you have booked and would like to join up with others for transportation there and back. Friday 23 October 4.30PM CUDDLE-UP SHABBAT led by rabbi moshe freedman

A family friendly service to welcome the younger community to Shabbat UK. Followed by snacks and songs.

5.30PM KABBALAT SHABBAT led by jonathan garcia

A Carlebach style, musical Friday night service for the whole community (preceded by mincha at 5pm for all those who can get there early). All ages welcome.

6PM FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER hosted by rabbi moshe freedman

Friday night dinner for all. Pre-booking essential. members: £10 per adult, £25 per family non-members: £15 per adult, £35 per family

3-4.30PM GAMES & SUSHI MAKING

Followed by a Sushi Seudah

Come and see how Shabbat afternoons are fun: Join us for games for adults and kids (or for thoughtful discussion) at the home of a local congregant. We will also be making sushi for our Seudah, amongst other things.

Pre-booking requested for catering purposes.members: £5 per adult, £12 per family non-members: £10 per adult, £25 per family

6PM-6.45PM SHABBAT SEND OFF

Come back to New West End Synagogue and enjoy the beauty of a traditional Havdalah ceremony as we bring Shabbat to a close together.

Pre-booking requested for catering purposes. Free.

6.45PM-9PM SHAVUA TOV MOVIE NIGHT!

Enjoy the start of the new week by joining us to watch a family friendly movie and eat some popcorn!

Pre-booking requested. Free.

Best New Year wishes to all for peace, health and happiness from

HILARY & DAVID SLOVICK

NEW YEAR MESSAGE

FRANK, FELICITY, ALEX, BEN & JOSH MILLER

wish Rabbi Freedman, Jonathan Garcia and the whole

community a sweet, happy, and peaceful New Year

NEW YEAR MESSAGE

DERRY & TONY DINKIN wish the Rabbi and the community a

healthy and peaceful New Year

NEW YEAR MESSAGErosh hashana 5776 | 2015

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Of course, my election was not the only one in May. There was also the small matter of a General Election. Ahead of this the Board produced its Jewish Manifesto – the most comprehensive ever produced which covered 14 areas of interest including religious freedom, antisemitism, Israel, education, social care and social action – all produced after consultation with more than 300 organisations and individuals. The Jewish Manifesto and its 10 Commitments which encapsulated the key aims of the document was sent out to every parliamentary candidate. We received videos of support from all three main party leaders supporting the Manifesto and its pledges.

In education, we have been working hard to maintain GCSE Ivrit and Biblical Hebrew and we are promoting Judaism through our Jewish Living Experience exhibitions and tours, in which thousands of non-Jewish children learn about our faith every year.

We have also been reaching out through Jewish Connection, which is supporting small communities all over the UK needing pastoral and social care, networking and advocacy support from the mainstream of the community.

In 5776 we will be pushing ahead with our new, dynamic team of Honorary Officers, dedicated Deputies and professional staff. Jewish core beliefs and practices are not currently

threatened in the UK and that is the way we want to keep things – we must retain our ability to continue to practise brit milah and shechitah and there should be an understanding of the importance of these traditions. Our relationship with the Muslim communities of the UK will be a priority. Jews have an important role to play in showing to them and other

faiths that it is not only possible but admirable to combine British values with adherence to religious tradition, and that these two things are not mutually exclusive.

We will be working with the Government to safeguard the security of our community and the continuation of that productive relationship is

a priority, particularly in light of the shocking rise in antisemitism. The fact that the Government has pledged millions of pounds to enable effective security to be provided outside schools, synagogues and other institutions is welcome but cannot hide the grotesque fact that such vigilance is still required because hatred of our community remains in some, albeit very limited, corners in our society.

I hope that 5776 is a peaceful one for members of our community. We will continue to represent your interests as only a democratically elected body can.

May this New Year bring you and your families health and strength, and may it be peaceful for Am Yisrael.

THIS is my first Rosh Hashanah as President of the Board following my election in May and I have much to do in order to continue the fine work we have been

doing over the past 12 months.

It is a year which we can look back to with some pride in our accomplishments. We have worked closely with the Government to ensure that our community is protected against the evil of antisemitism. The good relations we have fostered led to Home Secretary Theresa May and Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles attending our monthly Board meeting to reassure our community in the wake of the terrorist attacks against Jews in Paris in January.

This trustful relationship proved its worth in July when a small antisemitic group on the far right threatened to rally in Golders Green. We felt that the whole community should demonstrate its united resolve against bigotry and the Board, in partnership with the London Jewish Forum and anti-fascist organisation HOPE not Hate, together with the support of the Community Security Trust, formed Golders Green Together to turn a hateful occasion into a positive outcome for our community. The result was that all races and faiths in Golders Green came together to celebrate both their unity and diversity while behind-the-scenes work with the Government and police led to the rally being moved to central London – well away from the Jewish community that the racists were hoping to intimidate. The long-term work of the Board in building alliances and deepening mutual respect and understanding often goes unsung, but this episode demonstrates the benefits that it brings to our community.

We also acted against attempts to boycott Israel and antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism and have won some important battles – including against Rev Stephen Sizer, who has now been effectively disciplined by the Church of England after one rant too many. We also took prompt action

against an anti-Israel conference at Southampton University and the conference was cancelled following representations led by the Board. We have been very active against those calling for boycotts, divestment & sanctions.

Our document, ‘A Better Way than Boycotts’ highlighted a more constructive path to peace in the Middle East and has been very well received by major non-Jewish bodies in Britain and abroad.

ANN & HOWARD RICHENBERG

wish Rabbi Freedman, the Honorary Officers and the entire Community a happy

and peaceful New Year

‘The Jewish Manifesto and its 10 Commitments which encapsulated the key aims of the document was sent out to every parliamentary candidate.’


NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Jonathan Arkush president

THE BOARD OF DEPUTIES OF BRITISH JEWS


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SERIES 2 AUTUMN 2015

Exhilarating Experiences: on stage, the football field, in the board room, the bedroom, in New York… in the firing line.

Harvey Goldsmith, Richard Desmond & friends tell us how it is to be Self-Made.

Event 2 30/11/2015

Event 1 20/10/2015

With over half of the world’s nuclear weapons at his fingertips – just what does Vladamir Putin have in mind for world peace/domination?

Sir Malcolm Rifkind and friends discuss Putin’s Russia.

For more information about our upcoming events, visit our website: www.connectuslondon.co.uk

The first Connect Series with Fashion and Terrorism themed events was a huge success. Connect Fashion consisted of a choice of Breakout Groups with talks offered by Danielle Bernadout, Maureen Kendler and Rabbi Sam Taylor, followed by the key note event, a panel including John Galliano and Ronit Zilkha. Connect Terroism offered a choice of talks by Rabbi Freedman, Rabbi Herman and Dr Yehoshua followed by the key note event, a panel discussion chaired by Henry Grunewald OBE QC with panellists Mark Gardener, Prof Peter Neumann and a foreign correspondent/documentary film maker.

image credits † Blake Ezra Photography

† † † †

††


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A warm and sweet Shanah Tovah to

our many friends at the New West End

Synagogue

MIKE OZER & PAT KALMANS

PAUL & GILA ROSE wish Rabbi Freedman, the Honorary Officers

and the entire Community a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year

CAROL & LAURENCE

LANDO together with JESSICA wish our family, friends and the entire community

of the NWES a healthy, happy and

peaceful New Year and well over the Fast

NEW YEAR MESSAGE

NEW YEAR MESSAGE NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Wishing the Rabbi, his family and the community a year of peace and good

health and well over the Fast

EMILIE, DAVID & BEATRICE FRANK

THE FELLOWES

FAMILY wishes the entire

congregation Shanah Tovah

NEW YEAR MESSAGE

NEW YEAR MESSAGE

Shanah Tova to all our family and friends

VICTOR, ESTHER,

RUDI, THEO & NATALIE FIELDGRASS

NEW YEAR MESSAGE


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The New West End 1929-45

excerpts from the new west end synagogue from the golden jubilee to the centenary

by dr vivian lipman cvo

The years between the World Wars, and more especially the 1930's, were for the New West End Synagogue, years of transition. The area itself was beginning to change its character, as blocks of flats replaced mansions, and the maintenance of domestic establishments on the pre-1914 scale was no longer widespread or practicable. Hotels, offices, shops and non-residential uses increased. Compared with pre-1914, families who already had a place in the country spent more time there; others, with ease of transport provided by the motor car, acquired weekend homes. Thus the general environment was bound to work against the concept of a neighbourhood synagogue, attended by the upper middle class weekly or even daily, which inspired the founders of 1879.

If for an orthodox synagogue the natural catchment area is a 1-2 mile radius of that synagogue (in the case of the New West End, the W2, W11, W8 and SW7 postal districts), then 90% of the original applicants for seats - 141 out of 158 in a manuscript list in the synagogue archives lived within it. Of the remaining 10%, several lived only just outside this arbitrarily defined area or were listed under business addresses and probably lived in the area. In other words, the synagogue was founded as a neighbourhood

rise in economic status of the first or second generation immigrants of the 1881-1914 period, and coupled with an ever-increasing outward movement to the suburbs, meant that the New West End no longer held the same undisputed primacy in wealth and prestige as from 1879 to 1914.

The type of people who might well have moved to Bayswater and Kensington in that period now preferred Golders Green or the Hampstead Garden Suburb. The New West End might still be primus, but with the growth of larger and some almost as wealthy congregations in the continually expanding United Synagogue, it was now so inter pares.

In 1930, the New West End still had, as in all the years up to 1914, the highest average seat rental per male seatholder in the United Synagogue: 365 of the 369 seats for men were let and there was a waiting list.

The economic depression of the early 1930s, which affected the United Synagogue generally and was met by stringent cutting of expenditure, had a brief and marginal impact even on the New West End - a reduction in annual surpluses between 1931-2 and 1934-5.

There were complaints in the annual report for 1932-33 about the ‘small

synagogue and it is legitimate to presume that the founders felt a social and economic as well as a geographical division between themselves and the remainder of the members of the original Bayswater Synagogue. The latter became increasingly a Maida Vale neighbourhood synagogue, the epitome of the middle class, ‘suburban’ orthodox Jewish community of the 1880s and 1890s. By 1913, out of 275 male members of the New West End, about two- thirds lived in the catchment area, predominantly north of the Park (one-third in Bayswater); but with others living at addresses just inside adjacent postal areas within walking distance, the ‘neighbourhood’ element was probably around 70%. By 1939, however, even allowing for these fringe addresses, the neighbourhood element was 50%, with only 100 of the 315 non-business addresses in W2 or W11.

Within the Anglo-Jewish community two other developments affected the congregation in the inter-war years. First, decline in religious observance

- a phenomenon common to English society and even assimilation were bound to lessen the intensity of identification with the synagogue of some members of the older families, even when they did not remove it altogether. Second, the growth of London's middle class, swelled by the

proportion of the congregation’ who were regular attendants, although festival services continued to be well- attended; and on High Holydays, the synagogue was packed, and overflow services, previously held in the Board Room, were replaced by larger ones in the Century Theatre in Westbourne Grove.

The decade saw the deaths of prominent figures who were among the founders' generation or associated with its administration in the first half century. Sir Isidore Spielman, the pioneer of art exhibitions, who had done so much to perfect the aesthetic side of synagogue life, had died in 1925; his brother, Sir Meyer, the elocutionist and Inspector of Home Office schools, who attended ‘Sabbath by Sabbath' (as his memorial eulogy by Ephraim Levine recorded), died in 1936. Jacob Schwarzschild, descendant of a Frankfurt family, in 1929, the year in which Mr Percy Schwarzschild was financial representative; James Rossdale, a former warden and a devoted member of the board of management for 20 years, in 1934; Frank D. Benjamin, another active communal worker and regular Shabbat attender, in 1937. Finally, Arthur K. Franklin, eldest son of the founder Ellis Abraham Franklin, and an antiquary and family genealogist, as well an active communal worker, died in 1938.

Family continuity in the membership and leadership was maintained in the 1930s. The honorary officers included such names as Montagu (Swaythling), Franklin, Schwarzschild and Rossdale; and, to take a single example from the younger generation as an illustration, Donald E.L. Samuel, son of a founder and nephew of Viscount Samuel, who was to play so prominent a part in communal leadership in the New West End as well as elsewhere - first became an honorary officer.

The 1935 membership list, taken at random from the middle of the decade, contains many distinguished names, although the intensity of their participation in synagogal life no doubt ranged from full involvement to nominal association. Yet it is significant in Anglo-Jewish history, in contrast with the United States, that identification with Jewry was displayed by a membership of synagogue, and a synagogue bound by statute to the orthodox German-Polish rite. This was possible because the United Synagogue, like its New West End constituent, was an upper middle class ‘establishment’ organisation from its inception until the post-1945 period. Changes in its practice, personnel and philosophy came only when it was ‘taken over’ by middle class business men and professionals in the 1950s and 1960s.

But in the 1930s, titled members of the New West End alone included Lord Swaythling, the (second) Lord Rothschild, Lord Duveen, Sir Percy Harris MP, Sir Philip Carlebach, Sir Cecil Kisch and Sir Leonard Franklin. Sir Mathew Nathan, the first Jew to become a colonial governor and permanent head of the Post Office, Inland Revenue and Irish Offices - he was in charge of Dublin Castle at the time of the 1916 Rising - had left for retirement in Somerset but he had previously represented the synagogue on the Council of the United Synagogue. Indeed, the communal pre-eminence of the New West End is exemplified by the fact that, of the nine honorary officers of the United Synagogue, three, including the President Lionel de Rothschild, were members of the New West End.

A curious phenomenon is the synagogue's relation to Zionism. It would be unhistorical to claim that the New West End was, as an institution, associated with advancing that cause. Samuel Montagu was hostile. Simeon Singer, while originally a supporter of Herzl, later modified his views; and until well into the 1950s, the attitude of the synagogue, like that of the United Synagogue itself, could be described as, at best, detached. Yet it is an historical irony that not only


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‘In 1930, the New West End still had, as in all the years up to 1914, the highest average seat rental per male seatholder in the United Synagogue: 365 of the 369 seats for men were let and there was a waiting list.’

ephraim levine


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was Herbert Samuel, the protagonist of the Balfour Declaration within the British Cabinet, a member of the New West End, as was its leading opponent, Edwin Montagu. So also, though at a later date, was the 2nd Lord Rothschild, to whom the Balfour Declaration was addressed. Chaim Weizmann, while resident at 16 Addison Crescent W14, was a member from at least 1931 to 1939; his seat was no.154, the seat previously occupied by Sir Mathew Nathan, Mrs Weizmann being allocated seat no.54 in the Ladies Gallery.

The group of prominent British Zionists associated with Weizmann also included several New West End members: Simon Marks, Harry Sacher, Israel Sieff, Edward I. Sieff, and the President of the Jewish National Fund during this period, Captain Robert Solomon, whose wife Ethel was for many years chairman of the Federation of Women Zionists.

The decade was the middle (1931 being the actual mid-point) of the Rev. Ephraim Levine's half century association with the synagogue as minister. During his ministry Mr Levine preached 1000 sermons,

strata of society and the professions and their tastes and ways of life reflected the current ways of English society.

Ephraim Levine felt able to join with them in their relaxations and leisure interests and his instant wit and gifts as a raconteur were known throughout the Anglo-Jewish community. Indeed the fact that he was universally referred to as ‘Ephie' testifies to his personality and popularity. He was probably the most eloquent occupant of the orthodox Anglo-Jewish pulpit of his generation as his volume of sermons The Faith of a Jewish Preacher makes clear.

But he preached to his congregation not at them and this rapport with his community was enhanced by the grace and serenity of his wife, Annie, with whom he shared 52 years of married life. Yet because Ephraim Levine was not an author of scholarly works it would be wrong to think of him merely as a fashionable pastor to a fashionable congregation and ignore his considerable services to, and interest in, Jewish scholarship. He was both tutor in homiletics and honorary secretary of Jews' College; he rendered long service to the Jewish Historical Society of England which included a stint as honorary secretary. His cultured interests were evidenced by his close friendship with the bibliophile, collector and author Elkan N. Adler (1861-1946), whose famous Libra and manuscript collection at his home in nearby Porchester Terrace, was a rendezvous for scholars in his lifetime, and was tragically sold to the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York after his death.

In his latter years Adler was a devoted member of the New West End for whom, as Ephraim Levine put it, ‘the service of synagogue was part of his life’ and he was a lively participant in communal meetings.

Virtually contemporary with Ephraim Levine was the Rev Isaac Goldston, who came as secretary in 1918 and took on the readership in 1924 on the death of the Rev Lionel Geffen. He fully maintained the liturgical traditions of the congregation, as a melodious and expressive reader; he served as a highly successful headmaster of the classes; and he was an effective secretary, although his having to combine this office with the ministry was not perhaps felicitous for personal relationships. Outside the synagogue

according to the first Viscount Samuel, who added, ‘and we are all the better for them.’ Born in Glasgow in 1885, the son of a minister, he trained at University College London, Jews’ College and Jesus College, Cambridge (where he was a contemporary of the Rev Dr Abraham Cohen and Professor Selig Brodetsky). In 1914 he became minister of the St John's Wood Synagogue and in 1916 of the New West End, where his first task was to heal the upset caused by the sudden resignation of his predecessor the Rev Joseph Hochman and the subsequent correspondence and publicity in the Jewish and general press which showed Hochman's sympathies to be with Reform rather than Orthodox Judaism. In his inaugural sermon Ephraim Levine referred in humility to the memory of Simeon Singer, calling him ‘the ideal Jewish minister.’ But Ephraim Levine was in his own way probably the ideal minister specifically for the New West End congregation of his time. As the Jewish Chronicle put it, it was a ‘fashionable’ congregation inasmuch as its membership has always included a large number of Anglo-Jewish families whom fortune has called into the upper

he was a leader in Jewish religious education, as honorary secretary of the three bodies which later formed the London Board of Jewish Religious Education (the Talmud Torah Trust, Jewish Religious Education Board and Union of Hebrew and Religion Classes) and later of the Board itself. He also held high office in English freemasonry.

In spite of the prosperity and glamour of the New West End in these years, there were disturbing trends. First, the golden jubilee of 1929 was marked by the re-building of classrooms (and residential accommodation for officials), at the side and rear of synagogue building, because with 120 children on the roll in 1929-30, the accommodation was clearly inadequate. The work was completed and the premises formally opened by the President of the United Synagogue, Lionel de Rothschild, on November 18 1930. Yet almost immediately, the roll, and attendance, began to drop until, by December 1938, there were only 42 on the roll, and the number of classes was reduced to four. It was not that the congregation was uninterested in Jewish education although, with hours limited to 10-2.30 on Sundays, the standard of

achievement could not be high. The Rev Isaac Goldston was an inspired teacher and, as Sir Frederick Nathan said at the prize distribution in 1931, the number of pupils had increased fourfold since he had taken on supervision of the classes.

Further, the congregation gave generously for the support of the classes and fought for Jewish education to be recognised as a primary responsibility of the United Synagogue.

But the demographic facts were unfavourable. In 1931, 40% of the pupils were children of non-members; and by 1939, Mr Goldston said that very few children were living in the district. The honorary officers and board of management were very conscious in the 1930s of the long-term danger of these trends: the decline of the area as a residential area for Jewish families and the consequent need to promote interest in the synagogue among young people since this could no longer be taken for granted. To this end, special Friday evening services were instituted in 1936. They were ‘non-statutory' and the Chief Rabbi allowed men and women to sit downstairs. Special orders of service

were issued, including two psalms sung in English, as well as part of the normal Friday evening service in Hebrew; and there was a short address.

Children's services were held from time to time but, except on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, parents were said not to encourage their children to attend. After one poorly attended service, one of the children present was said to have demanded the employment of Minyan children!

The New West End Synagogue Association was formed in 1934, with Mr Donald Samuel as chairman, to promote interest in synagogue traditions and management by providing opportunities for interchange of visit, social meetings, dances, lectures and excursions. Among the lectures in 1936 was an address by Sir Herbert Samuel on ‘Liberty’.

Members of the congregation continued their generosity to charitable causes and their practical social work, and this was extended to meet the needs of German and Austrian refugees. The activities of the Synagogue's League of Social Service were developed to cover work nearer home in Notting


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vera & chaim weizmann with herbert samuel, 1930s

isaac goldston

‘Chaim Weizmann, while resident at 16 Addison Crescent W14, was a member from at least 1931 to 1939; his seat was no.154, the seat previously occupied by Sir Mathew Nathan, Mrs Weizmann being allocated seat no.54 in the Ladies Gallery.’

rosh hashana 5776 | 2015mosaic | the magazine of the new west end synagogue

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Hill. The congregation both supported communal appeals for German Jewry and co-operated locally with the North Kensington Refugee Aid Council in opening a hostel in St Mark's Road for 34 boys between the ages of 14 and 15.

By 1939 refugees ware noticeably increasing the numbers at services though decline in attendance of the synagogue's own members was noted in the Annual Report.

One strand which ran through the history of the congregation in this period was the prominence of women in communal work and an associated pressure for equal rights. In the 1931-2 Annual Report the attendance of women at annual general meetings is noted. The Ladies Committee (formed earlier to take charge of synagogue vestments, decoration of the Succah and ‘other matters which come within their province’) in 1937 suggested both ritual changes, comprising reduction in the Mussaph service, triennial readings of the Law, and more English in the services, and votes for women. They achieved no success with the first but in 1943 women members in their own right became eligible for nomination as

Synagogue to reduce ministerial salaries as an economy measure was also resisted.

The first High Holyday services of the war presented Mr Donald Samuel as warden with special difficulties. The normal hours for Yom Kippur services could not be kept because of the blackout restrictions; and the fear of a bomb falling on a large congregation required the appointment of stewards to cope with any emergency (the basement had already been taken over as a public air raid shelter, with Mr Roth, the beadle, as shelter marshal).

Because of the absence of honorary officers from London in wartime, Lord Swaythling (who had served as warden in 1928 and 1929, the third generation of his family in succession to do so) returned temporarily as financial representative. The Rev Isaac Goldston, who was 70 in 1943, remained at his post throughout the war, as well as carrying heavy responsibilities in promoting the Jewish education of evacuated children. Because the problems arising in the reception areas generally called for the wisdom and experience of a leading minister, the United Synagogue asked in September 1941 that, in the interests of Anglo-Jewry as a whole, the Rev Ephraim Levine should be released to spend half of every month outside London, to guide the officials working locally. Although there was some reluctance, the Board of Management finally agreed to release Mr Levine for wider communal service at alternate weekends.

Looking back at the war years, it is remarkable how the New West End, after the initial trauma, managed to adjust to conditions of war. Weekday services were held in the Board Room; High Holyday services were well attended; the choir and the classes (albeit with much reduced numbers) continued. Special services of intercession were held and in December 1942 a service in memory of the victims of Nazi atrocities in Poland. In 1943, Dutch Jews held a service in the synagogue in honour of Queen Wilhelmina's birthday. The Synagogue was also one of those specially designated for attendance by United States Jewish servicemen. In 1944, choral services for war workers were instituted on Sunday mornings.

The synagogue was fortunate in not suffering any major damage to its fabric

synagogal representative on the Board of Deputies, and Miss Nettie Adler (1868-1950), daughter of Dr Hermann Adler, and a noted social worker, was one of the five candidates nominated. This was, course, a battle for the rights of women to represent synagogues (of the United Synagogue) on the Board; women had been members of the Board, representing various communal organisations, from 1919, and it is perhaps not without significance that Emily, Lady Spielmann, wife of Sir Meyer, of the New West End, was the first woman member.

The outbreak of war in 1939 brought to the New West End the problems which affected every London synagogue: evacuation, damage from bombing, difficulties over revenue, depletion of active membership through service in the Forces, strains upon a shrinking and ageing staff of officials. Even the New West End had its first year without a financial surplus, though it resisted the United Synagogue's orders to economise by dismissing the paid choir, some of whom had no other means of support, and it retained a nucleus to lead congregational singing of services. Pressure from the United

from bombing, though there were several ‘near misses’; one, which could have been catastrophic, was on Yom Kippur night 1940 after the fast and service were over. Much of the glass, however, was lost and was replaced (mainly to the original pattern) after the war. Opportunity was then taken to commemorate a number of members, including Elkan Adler, who died in 1946.

About 20 members or their children were killed or died on active service. This compares with 26 in the 1914-18 war with its carnage of young officers and others, and seems to show an appreciably higher rate of casualties in the Second World War than is normally recorded on war memorials.

It would be invidious to single out names on personal grounds but a few must be mentioned because of their wider historic interest. Among those killed was Brigadier Frederic H. Kisch CB, CBE, DSO (1888-1943), Chief Engineer of the Eighth Army and equally remembered for his part in the development of the Yishuv as principal representative in Palestine of the Zionist Executive and Jewish Agency

from 1923 to 1931. Of those members who served and survived, Brigadier E.F. Benjamin (1900-69), for many years a member, and son of Frank D. Benjamin, commanded the Jewish Brigade from 1944 to 1946; and the Hon. Ewen E.S. Montagu recorded some of his exploits in Naval Intelligence in his best-selling book The Man Who Never Was.

By 1943, the move back to London from evacuation areas was under way and continued despite the V-Bomb attacks of 1944-5. By September 1943, there were more applicants for seats than seats available, and by April 1945, 70 new members were still awaiting seats.

The finances, which had returned to surplus in 1941-2, showed a net surplus £324 by 1945. The classes, which never closed on Sundays, though reduced to one pupil in the early days of the war, had a roll of 22 in May 1942 and 33 in 1943-4, though it was down to 20 (including children of non-members) in April 1945. The Ladies' Committee had resumed their activities, and social work was under way again. The campaign for ‘women's rights' was renewed by urging the board of management to persuade the United Synagogue to amend the

Act of 1870 to give the vote to women seatholders.

Yet in spite of these perceptible signs of revival, there was still a long way to go. Attendances on Sabbath, as distinct from High Holyday and festival services, were low and it was suggested that the way to renew interest was to form classes for adults in Hebrew and the prayer book, organise lectures for young people, hold regular children's services, found a young people's association and establish a ‘communal centre.’

The situation at the end of the war is perhaps best summed up in a document sent then to members, ‘Your Synagogue

- A Post-War Revival. Will you help?...Never in its long history of 70 years has membership been so large, and probably never has regular synagogue attendance been so meagre.’ This challenge, faced in the late 1940s and the 1950s, was met by the movement to found a communal centre and provide it with appropriate premises. Having survived the war, the congregation was to take advantage of the opportunities of peace to serve not only itself but also the wider Anglo-Jewish community.


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ewen montagu’s the man who never was


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Yom Tov Guiderosh hashanah sunday 13th septemberLight the Yom Tov candles before 7.05pm and recite the following two blessings:

‘Barooch atah Adonye Eloheinoo melech ha’olam, asher kiddshanoo b’mitzvotav v'tzivanu l' hadlik neir shel Yom Tov.’

‘Barooch atah Adonye Eloheinoo melech ha'olam she’hecheyanoo, vekiyemanoo, vehigianoo lazman hazeh.’

Prior to lighting the candles, it is important to light a twenty-five hour candle e.g. a Yahrzeit candle, so that one can transfer the flame from the twenty-five hour candle to a new candle in order to light the Yom Tov candles on the second night of Yom Tov

Services in the Synagogue commence at 7.00pm.

Following services, and your return home, make Yom Tov Kiddush, then wash hands ritually and make the blessing over the challah. The challot for Rosh Hashanah are traditionally round and represent continuity and wholeness. After eating some challah, dipped in honey, we take an apple and dip a piece in honey and say the following prior to eating it:

‘Barooch atah Adonye Eloheinoo melech ha’olam, Borei Peri Haeitz’

After eating it recite the following:

‘Yehi ratzon milfanecha Adonye Eloheinoo veilohei avoteinoo, she’techadesh aleinoo Shana Tova oometooko’

‘May it be your will. O Lord our Gd and Gd of our forefathers that this year will be a happy and sweet year for us.’

SHABBAT SHUVA friday 18th septemberShabbat commences 6.54pm.

Mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat will be read at 6.45pm.

saturday 19th septemberShacharit will be at 9.15am. Mincha followed by Seudah will be held at 6.45pm and Ma’ariv will be held when Shabbat ends at 7.53pm. yom kippur tuesday 22nd septemberMincha

On Erev Yom Kippur, Tuesday 22nd September, at 1.30pm, we will conduct the pre-Yom Kippur Mincha (afternoon) service, in the Synagogue. Included in this service is the first of the ten times that we recite ‘Al-cheit’ prayer (confession) throughout Yom Kippur.

A festival meal on Erev Yom Kippur is a mitzvah (obligation) because one thereby reveals joy over the approach of his or her time of forgiveness. This meal is called the ‘seudat hamafseket’ (meal of cessation). There is no Kiddush prior to this meal, but we do wash our hands ritually, make the ‘Hamotzi’ (usually over a Challah) and say Grace after Meals. The meal should be concluded well before 6.45pm, allowing enough time to light candles and to get to the Synagogue in time.

The following Berachot are said over the candles:

‘Barooch atah Adonye Eloheinoo melech ha’olam, asher kiddshanoo b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik neir shel Yom HaKippoorim.’

‘Barooch atah Adonye Eloheinoo melech ha’olam she’hecheyanoo, vekiyemanoo, vehigianoo lazman hazeh.’

Wearing Non-leather Shoes

It is forbidden for men, women and children to wear leather shoes on Yom Kippur.

monday 14th septemberShacharit services begin at 8.00am.

It is important for every man, woman and child to hear the blowing of the Shofar which commences at approximately 10.00am It is important to hear the blessings recited by the Ba'al Tekiah (the one who actually blows), and to answer ‘Amein’ to both blessings. Then, during the course of the morning, we are obliged to hear one hundred blasts of the Shofar.

It is forbidden to talk from the time one hears the first note of the 100, right up until the last one.

In the afternoon of the first day of Rosh Hashanah, we will return to the Synagogue at 4.45pm to walk together towards the Serpentine for a ‘Tashlich and Tea’ at the Peter Pan Statue at 5.15pm. This is performed by reciting several prayers at a source of water. Afterwards, the pockets are symbolically emptied as if a person is shaking off his sins and casting them into the water. As a source for this ceremony the verses in Michah are often quoted:

‘He will again have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea ....’

We then return to the Synagogue for Mincha and Ma’ariv at 6.30pm.

monday night 14th septemberWe usher in the second day of Rosh Hashanah by lighting the Yom Tov candles as soon as possible after 8.05pm. We do this by transferring the flame from the existing flame which was lit before the first night Rosh Hashanah began (see above) and then reciting the two blessings. Since there is a doubt about whether we should recite the

kol nidreiServices in the Synagogue commence at 7.05pm.

The Yom Kippur prayers begin with the chanting of Kol Nidrei. We have to commence before sunset since this prayer is a form of the repealing of vows, and we are not permitted to repeal vows on Yom Tov.

wednesday 23rd septemberShacharit commences at 9.30am.

Yizkor on Yom Kippur Day will be at approximately 1.15pm.

If one's parents are still alive, it is permissible, but not essential, to leave the Synagogue during Yizkor. However, it is our custom that we commence with a public Yizkor, which includes Memorial Prayers for the victims of the Holocaust and for Israel's fallen soldiers, for which everyone should remain in the Synagogue. There will then be a short break to allow those who wish to leave to go out before we commence the private Yizkor.

During Mincha (approximately 5.00pm), there will be a special ‘Challenge the Rabbi’ session in the Golda Cohen Room. Come prepared with your questions on a Jewish topic.

The Fast ends at 7.44pm. succotThe Building of the Succah

If you haven't built a Succah before and intend to do so this year, the Rabbi will be very happy to advise on the requirements to ensure that it is Kasher.

It is a Mitzvah to decorate the Succah. If you are able to assist with the Shul’s Succah, please contact the Synagogue office for details of when it will be done. Also please let us know if you are able to donate laurel branches, fruit, etc.

Dwelling in the Succah

It is a great Mitzvah to eat in the Succah. The congregation is invited to join us for a festive dinner in our Shul Succah following services on Sunday evening 27th September. Please make reservations at the Synagogue Office on 020 7229 2631.

She’hecheyanu Beracha on the second night, it is traditional to have on the table a new fruit that one has not eaten yet that year, while one makes the blessings over the candles. Alternatively one can wear a new item of clothing. However, if one does not have a new fruit or a new item of clothing, one still makes both blessings including

‘She’hecheyanu’. tuesday 15th septemberShacharit services begin at 8.00am.

Mincha and Ma’ariv will be read at 7.00pm. Yom Tov ends at 8.03pm. the fast of gedaliah wednesday 16th septemberThe day after Rosh Hashanah is observed as a fast day, in memory of Gedaliah ben Achikam. Gedaliah had been appointed Governor of Judea by Nebuchadnezzar, after the destruction of the first Temple in 586 BCE. He had been charged with the responsibility of rebuilding Jewish life among the remnant of the Jews still in the Holy Land.

As a result of internal strife among the people, Gedaliah was assassinated and, many of those Jews who had remained in Judea, fled to Egypt. Since this represented the final stage of the destruction of Jerusalem, it is observed as a fast day, when we recite special Selichot prayers.

Shacharit will be at 6.45am Fast ends at 7.54pm.

Kindling of the Lights

Lights are kindled on the first Yom Tov night in the Succah (if you have one – or else indoors) and two Berachot are said:

‘Barooch atah Adonye Eloheinoo melech ha’olam, asher kiddshanoo b’mitzvotav v’tzivanu l’hadlik neir shel Yom Tov.’

‘Barooch atah Adonye Eloheinoo melech ha’olam she’hecheyanoo, vekiyemanoo, vehigianoo lazman hazeh.’

Note that the same requirements regarding the 25-hour candle apply as they did for Rosh Hashanah.

Four Species - The Lulav

The four species are taken hold of each of the seven festival days (except Shabbat) and a Berachah is said over them daily.

Anyone who wishes to have a set of lulav and etrog, please contact our Shammash Eli Ballon in the Shul Office. Even if you do not have your own Lulav and Etrog there will be several sets in the Synagogue for your use. simchat torahPlease note that our annual Simchat Torah party will take place this year on Monday 5th October following the evening service which commences at 7.30pm. Please bring your children both on the Monday night and Tuesday morning for Hakafot – there will also be a special Kiddush after the service on the Tuesday morning.

This year’s Chatan Torah will be Mike Jacobs, and the Chatan Bereshit will be Gavin Lief. We wish them both a hearty Mazal Tov.

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rosh hashanah 2015 / 5775

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