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Dear Member,

 

This morning England is once again in national lockdown. We know the heavy toll it will take on the country, on our community, and on our way of life.

 

As President, I have to juggle two competing but essential principles: enabling Jewish life to flourish, and preserving life by keeping our members safe.

 

Normally of course these two principles are not in competition. But we are not in normal times.

 

Coronavirus has forced us to make sacrifices we could never have imagined. We are once again being forced to stop our communal services. It is extremely painful, particularly given the extent to which our communities have followed the strict government guidelines so far, but the rising infection rate demands that we do so.

 

We will follow the law of the land as we always do but we will always look to find ways to permit Jewish life wherever possible.

 

That is why this week, behind the scenes, the Office of the Chief Rabbi and the United Synagogue have been speaking with government figures at the highest level to discuss the impact closing our shuls will have on our community and to discuss positive ways forward where it is safe to do so.

 

It is right to take steps to preserve life. Indeed, it is the only responsible course of action my fellow Trustees and I can take. But it is also right to explore how to maintain communal life.

 

We know the hurt the closure of our shuls will cause community members who will lose the comfort of communal prayer and seeing friendly faces, mourners who will lose the opportunity to say kaddish and families who will need to postpone those weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs that they have been planning for so long. We share this pain - and I share the pain in particular as I am saying Kaddish.

 

That is why I am writing today to tell you the steps the United Synagogue has already taken to support our members and the wider community at this most challenging time.

 

Despite the situation, United Synagogue communities are continuing to support their congregants through online prayer and other activity and warmly welcome you to participate, should you wish, whether you are a member or not. In addition, the United Synagogue centrally is also facilitating the following activities to assist with prayer during lockdown.

Online prayer and memorial prayers

 

Every day on the United Synagogue Facebook page you can join one of our Rabbis and pray along with him, or watch them on demand. View the timetable by clicking here. Rabbi Daniel Epstein at the Cockfosters & N Southgate will start these prayer broadcasts today. He will say a memorial prayer at the end for those in mourning or observing a yarhzeit. He will also say a mishna (see below) after davening for mourners. Your rabbi can also offer advice on further memorial prayers you can say while davening alone should you, sadly, be in mourning or marking a yahrzeit. Our online pre-Shabbat Kabbalat Shabbat prayers continue on Friday afternoons on TheUS.tv.

 

Kaddish Pairing Project

 

Losing the opportunity to say Kaddish now, due to the suspension of communal prayer, is painful for those in mourning or commemorating a yahrzeit. Our Kaddish Pairing Project, working together with partners in Israel, Glasgow and the USA such as the Orthodox Union, links members of our community with volunteers in places where communal prayer may take place to ensure that Kaddish will be recited.  Please register here if you would like Kaddish to be said on your behalf. If you live outside England and are able to say Kaddish for someone, please click here to sign up.

 

Mishna study in memory of loved ones

 

It is also traditional to study Mishna, one of our oldest legal texts, in memory of loved ones. Over the next few weeks on the United Synagogue YouTube channel, we will provide short, daily videos teaching a selection from the Mishnaic section of Pirkei Avot (Ethics of our Fathers). A text of this section will be available on our YouTube page. Each video will conclude with a memorial prayer. Videos will be uploaded during the day, with the first one available from midday today. They can be watched on-demand.

 

Big names, big topics

 

TheUS.tv is also the place for our latest on-demand content from our communities and the United Synagogue centrally. You can watch Dame Margaret Hodge discuss the EHRC report and the Labour party, Philippe Sands QC on the Rat Line and East West Street, Rahima Mahmut on the Uyghur Genocide, and the Chief Rabbi teaching in the merit of a speedy recovery for Rabbi Sacks. We’ve got weekly classes and a cookery show, too!

 

Support for vulnerable members

 

The Chesed team will continue providing members in need with essential food boxes which include household goods, cupboard essentials, non-perishable items, fresh food and fresh fruit and veg. If there is anyone in your community that is in need of support please don’t hesitate to contact Michelle Minsky confidentially on mminsky@theus.org.uk

 

Volunteering

 

The United Synagogue Chesed department is arranging a range of volunteering activities you can get busy with. We need help with sorting and packing food for our essential packs for vulnerable members, we need drivers and we need cooks to prepare meals. Please contact Yael Peleg on ypeleg@theus.org.uk to discuss.

 

New series on prayer

 

From next week, tune into TheUS.tv for our on-demand series on Prayer: the language of the heart and the soul, inspired by great teachers such as Rabbi Lord Sacks, Rabbi Dr Jeffrey Cohen, Rabbi Dr Irving Jacobs and Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz z’l for fascinating insights into the siddur, prayer and well-known sections such as the Shema and Aleinu. Please also look out for a course on learning to read Hebrew.

 

Cheder

 

United Synagogue chedarim have acted swiftly to move their programmes online for children. We always have room for more so if your child is interested in joining please be in touch with your local cheder or email Tamar Berman on tberman@theus.org.uk for more details.

May God bless us, our country and the world with health, safety and a better future. We wish you well. On a more positive note, I hope all our communities taking part in Mizrachi's "Shabbaton@Home" have a wonderful and meaningful weekend. Check out the programme this evening at 8:00pm featuring Chief Rabbi Mirvis, Chief Rabbi Goldstein of South Africa, Ambassador Tzipi Hotevely and top Israeli musician Ishai Ribo.

 

 

Shabbat shalom to you all,

 

 

Michael Goldstein

President

United Synagogue

Click the play button to watch this week's D'var Torah by the Chief Rabbi. If you'd prefer to read the transcript, please click here.

 

Welcome to 'Tell US', our new section where we invite you to contribute a joke, a poem or a story. We look forward to turning the spotlight on your literary creations over the coming weeks and months!

 

This week's contribution is by Joan Manning, a member of Watford & District Synagogue.

 

Covid & Me

 

Who would have thought, in twenty nineteen, that the following year would be like a bad dream?

 

We saw the year in with cake and champagne, and kisses and hugs, not knowing the pain.

 

That those mem’ries would bring us, so very much, when we wouldn’t be able even to touch.

 

The winter was passing, we headed for spring. Preparing for Pesach and the joy it would bring.

 

With family invited and the Seder all planned. The last thing we expected was to find it was banned!

 

"There’s a virus about, you lose taste and you cough. So you have to stay in, ‘cos it’s killing you off."

 

"It’s killing and culling and taking you down. You must keep your distance, COVID is around!"

 

For all of us oldies, those living in care, the message was: Isolate! Danger!  Beware!

 

So, through the long summer, we kept out of town. Out of shops, out of theatres, even doctors locked down.

 

For those of us able to Facebook or Skype, we sort of connected, but not how we liked.

 

And as we approached the High Holy Days, the synagogues adapted, in so many ways.

 

To help our communities offer up praise. In what had become the Strangest of Days.

 

Now we’re depressed and we’re bored, with so little to do. Funerals attended, just by a few.

 

Weddings, celebrations, all put on hold. Until the day we are finally told:

 

"The pandemic is over, come into the light. You can now emerge from this long, lonely night."

 

Grandchildren’s children will learn during history that this world was ravaged by a terrible mystery.

 

Their parents will nod, and this story they’ll share with their kids, saying “Oh yes, I know, I was there!”

 

Please send your submissions to youandus@theus.org.uk.

 

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