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You can find details of this week's Torah reading, Maftir and Haftarah in our weekly Daf Hashavua by clicking here.

One of the hidden crises caused by the pandemic is the hundreds of Jewish families struggling to put food on their table. You may not think that's the case. But they are. And the United Synagogue Chesed department, working through our local communities, helps these vulnerable families and isolated people each and every day.

 

We need your help. We need to raise £300,000 in our 36-hour matched giving campaign to provide for those in crisis this Pesach and over the coming year. Thanks to some very generous supporters, every donation will be doubled. Click here now to make a difference.

 

To share but one example with you: a US member told us how she and her husband couldn't afford to feed their children or pay their bills after losing her job last year. US Chesed and her local shul stepped in and have been supporting the family since. This is not an isolated story and is replicated across the United Synagogue community. Help US to help them by clicking here now.

 

Thank you.

Award winners!

 

We are thrilled to announce a whole host of wonderful winners at Tuesday's Jewish Volunteering Network annual awards!

 

The United Synagogue Chevra Kadisha has won the Jewish Volunteering Network's Outstanding Volunteer Team of the Year award. It has been a year like no other for the extraordinary men and women who prepare our loved ones for burial. Too many members of our community have lost family and friends. We pay our heartfelt respects to the Chevra Kadisha volunteers who perform this emet shel chesed, ultimate act of kindness.

 

Bushey United Synagogue won the Outstanding Innovation in Volunteering During the Covid Pandemic award. 'Covid Coordinators' asked people to step forward as volunteers to assist members requesting help with shopping and picking up prescriptions and other activities. More than 60 community members signed up to help their fellow members out.

 

Mazal tov to our members Estelle and Gordon Miller, for their lifetime achievement award. Gordon and Estelle Miller are pillars of the Essex Jewish community. They have been involved in a number of United Synagogue shuls running services and kiddushes and leading on welfare issues.

 

Highgate United Synagogue member and former Chair, Ruth Green, a trustee of UJIA, scooped the top award in the Outstanding Volunteer of the Year category, with judges recognising her “seemingly limitless” energy for volunteering. Mazal tov!

 

Ingrid Segal took the trophy for Volunteer of the Year for her work to rejuvenate the Mitzvah Day programming at Northwood United Synagogue. Since taking on the lead coordinator role, she has transformed the scope of projects and energized her community. Mazal tov!

 

Mazal tov too to all of the United Synagogue asylum seeker drop-in centre volunteers for their innovation in volunteering during Covid award! Lockdown forced us to close our Drop-In Centres but after much hard work we moved to a delivery-based service so that we could continue providing asylum seekers with the food and other items they needed.

 

And of course thank you to the hundreds of United Synagogue volunteers across the country who lead our communities, support our vulnerable members, run children's programmes, keep us safe and put on engaging events.

Mill Hill East Jewish Community

 

Over the last couple of weeks, we've been introducing you to some of our brand new communities. You can catch up on Hatfield by clicking here and on Jewish Borehamwood East by clicking here.

 

The new community of Mill Hill East is another United Synagogue success story. Thanks to the hard work and dedication of local lay leaders, now supported by Rabbi Bentzi and Rebbetzen Michal Mann, the community has recently become a formal member of the United Synagogue and boasts some 220 members.

Members told us that they enjoyed the grassroots feeling that they were creating a community that was fresh and perhaps different from what you might expect. Volunteering is a strong theme in the community, as is accessible Jewish learning. Locals told us how "everyone is welcome" and that "everyone who lives here has their own part they add to the community".

 

The area is leafy with a range of parks and fields within easy access. A kosher store has a wide range of products and the KLBD-supervised and delicious Bagel Place is one of Mill Hill East's best kept secrets.

 

Unsurprisingly for an area with a large Jewish population, there is easy access to some of the best local Jewish schools via the A41 and M1. Northern Line trains on the Underground run every 11-15 minutes.

 

You can read more about Mill Hill East Jewish Community on Facebook, Instagram and their website.

And lastly, do check out some great events below - on Sunday we're launching our new Wellbeing Series with a look at dementia and on Monday Kinloss and South Hampstead are hosting TV's Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis and all are welcome!

 

Shabbat shalom,

 

Richard Verber

Communications Director

United Synagogue

P.S. Next week we'll be sharing exciting details about our Pesach Seder in a Box initiative and Tribe's fabulous summer camps!

"Thank God for Zoom!" says the Chief Rabbi. "But it's nothing like the real thing." Click here to watch this week's D'var Torah by the Chief Rabbi.

A Forward-Looking Poem

 

We’ve just celebrated Purim. for the first time during Lockdown

And are about to do so, for Pesach, for the second time around

But, lockdown restrictions are due to ease

As we have a roadmap to end all of these

For Shavuot, and future Chagim, we may be able to go to town

 

So, a good morning to you all and for many this is surely the case

Since it’s the end of the last week, before next Monday, March 8th

When, we know that Baruch Hashem

All of our children and grandchildren

Go back to school and parents across the land celebrate this date

 

We’ve had Meteorological, and it will soon be Astronomical, spring

This puts a brighter and more positive spin on almost everything

We’re already enjoying longer days

And the power of the Sun’s rays

Giving us healthy doses of Vitamin D and that feel-good factor within

 

I do not want to wish my life, or any of our lives, away

But it does seem that we have new hope day by day

As all who want it, will, surely, soon

Be vaccinated, and after 21st June,

Adults, as well as boys and girls, can come out to play

 

I am optimistic that after the Pandemic, “Winter of discontent,”

With cold weather, dark days and so many lives, sadly spent,

Better times will come along

I wish you a Shabbat Shalom

And going forward, not looking back a, “Summer of merriment.”

 

 

By Stephen Miller

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