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The Shul Times
THE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER OF WANSTEAD & WOODFORD SYNAGOGUE
Shabbat Noach - 1 Cheshvan 5775 · 25 October 2014
Rosh Chodesh
Shana Tova and welcome to Wanstead & Woodford Synagogue!
Whether a member or visitor, we hope you enjoy your time
in our warm and welcoming community.
Mazal tov to…
Henry Engelsman, Graeme Taylor and Stephen Miller on their birthdays
and to Sandra & Alan Lewis and Nicola & Richard Baker on their
wedding anniversaries
Rene Fishel on the birth of a great-grand-daughter, Avigail.
Nathan Moscow on his Bar Mitzvah . Mazal tov also to parents Estee
and Simon Moscow, brother Adam, grandmother Michelle Bitton and
grandparents Ros and Phillip Small
The Chief Rabbi’s Shabat UK - Fri night 24th October: SPECIAL
CARLEBACH SERVICE in the shul, with a DELICIOUS LIGHT KIDDUSH to
follow the service. Shabbat Afternoon: Following Mincha (5.00pm), we
will be having a COMMUNAL SEUDA SHLISHIT. Children/youth will have
a special program run by leaders during the course of the meal. For
adults we will have a special presentation by whiskey ‘expert’
Mordechai Bendon from Israel on ‘Single Malt Scotch Whiskey- a Jewish
Perspective’, including some tastings. After Shabbat: After Shabbat
terminates, we will have A MUSICAL HAVDALA SERVICE, accompanied
‘vodka burning’ to provide additional light to the Havdalah candle. The
atmosphere will be wonderful. At around 8pm, the grand finale is a
lively concert for the whole community with The ‘Three Fivers’ . As we
set up for the concert following Havdalah, children/youth will have a
second program with madrichim. The evening finishes at about 9.30pm
Dates & Times
Shabbat begins and
Kabbalat Shabbat
service: 17.34
Shabbat
Shacharit 09.20
Mincha 17.00
Shabbat ends 18.35
Sunday Shacharit 08.00
Monday-Thursday
Shacharit 06.40
Monday, Tuesday
Maariv 20.00
Kiddush by Estee and
Simon in celebration of
Nathan’s Barmitzvah.
If you would like to receive the Shul Times by e-mail each week or
have any news or articles contact [email protected]
To contact the Shul office, e-mail Lynn at [email protected] or
phone 8504 1990
www.wwshul.org
Wanstead & Woodford Synagogue Diary events for 2014.
Wednesday evening 29th October: Whisky and Halacha. Shiur by Mordechai Bendon. Please
phone Brenda for details and to book your place on 8550 4826.
Wednesday 26th November: Fun and Games. Bridge, kalooki and games brunch at the shul - £8.50
incl refreshments – book Audrey 85041825 or Bernice 8550 8410
Monday 1st December : A talk to remember Harold Weinberg's yarzheit. 'The second Exodus
from Egypt". 19.30 for 20.00 Refreshments, no charge.
Sunday 21st December: Chanukah. Keep this date free for an exciting event.
In its third year, Woodford Juniors is now the largest junior company in JLGB and welcomes new
members, Jewish boys & girls aged 8- 11 - to make new friends and to have lots of fun! Please
contact JLGB Head Office on 8989 8990 to find out more.
Belinda says that the Norwood charity shop would really appreciate your help – check your clothes
and anything else, and bring them round to the shop. Profits all go to a good cause.
Neros
Our synagogue has an active link to Neros which was founded as a means of bringing together the
Orthodox Shuls in the area, in order to discuss and hopefully solve common problems and also
organise joint events .
Details of local events organised by Neros can be found on its website www.neros.org and by
contacting WWS’ Neros representative - [email protected] or 0208-989-0413
The Talmud shiur continues on Monday nights in the Beit Hamidrash. Strictly Come Learning
continues on Tuesday night following Ma’ariv.
The Rabbi’s shiur, entitled ‘Ethics and Perspectives from the Weekly Parasha’ takes place in
members’ houses on alternate Wednesday nights.
Community Cares
If you can offer help or know of anyone requiring help, please contact Coral Miller via the Shul
Office.
JACS
Thursdays between 1pm-3pm for music and guest speakers. Admission £2.50
Stone settings
Marion Gendler
Ruth Lewis
16 November 11.30 Waltham Abbey
16 November 12.00 Waltham Abbey
Yahrzeits
We wish a long life to the following members on the Yahrzeit of their...
Father: Ruth Feather, Susan Napper, John Saffer, Hilary Saffron, David Darwin, Linda Eriera
Mother: Susan Simberg, Fleur Conway, David da Bora, Sidney Kac, Ben Tobin, Lawrence
Handworker, Warren Lewis
Husband: Kitty Selby
Sister: David Marcovitch
We are unlike any other youth group in the borough! We are a Jewish youth group (for ages 1722) looking for people from all over Essex and east London who wish to meet new people for
social meetings and outings once a month.
We are looking for young Jewish people who simply wish to make new friends, catch up with old
ones or who are just looking for people with a Jewish connection.
And most of all just have a great time.
Please phone Ben on 07949 070332 or text Josh on 07552 236996.
Please do feel free to Like us on Facebook at Essex Jewish Youth'.
The Shabbat Project: Making History by Simon Apfel
As the sun dips below the horizon on October 24, an estimated one million people worldwide
will be participating in this extraordinary initiative.
Paula Abdul and The Big Bang Theory’s Mayim Bialik have joined Nobel Prize laureates,
international sports stars, a US vice-presidential candidate and Jews of every nationality, ethnicity
and level of observance who, in less than a week, will be uniting in 340 cities across the globe for
what might just be the most extraordinary Shabbat in Jewish history…
In Melbourne, a sociology professor from Monash University has undertaken an in-depth study of
the city’s Jewish community to focus efforts, while scores of committees and subcommittees are
ensuring the initiative reaches every last Jew in the state of Victoria. An estimated 50% of the
60,000-strong community are expected to take part.
In Buenos Aires, where every single Jewish community organization, school and synagogue in the
city has signed up, more than ten thousand people are expected at an enormous Havdallah Unity
Concert which has been put together with the help of the Argentinian government, and which will
be broadcast on national television.
In Miami, a crack team have perfected a revolutionary recipe for a Thursday night Challah Bake
expected to draw thousands, while a local high-school pupil is bringing hundreds of fellow highschool students from across South Florida to Miami Beach for one gargantuan shabbaton, and a
local Chabad rabbi has set up a big tent on the premises of his shul, and is offering lavish Shabbat
meals for anyone in his zip code pledging to keep that Shabbat.
In Canada – where even Prime Minister Stephen Harper is endorsing the initiative – posters are
appearing in subway stations in Toronto, while an enormous neon billboard has recently gone up
in New York’s Times Square.
Poster ads will also be emblazoned on hundreds of Egged busses and on busy highways and
byways across Israel, where the local team have just launched the #Keeping it Together app –
packed with all anyone needs to know about keeping Shabbat, and programmed to put users’
phones to sleep over Shabbat. Meanwhile, the Rami Levy supermarket chain will be offering a
“challah for a shekel, wine for five shekels” special this week.
So far, over 60,000 words of support material have been adapted into Ashkenaz, Sepharad and Ari
versions, and translated into English, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, German French, Italian and
Portuguese. A recent print run of an “Unofficial guide” to keeping Shabbat and a Shabbat “Toolkit”
(which you might have seen at your local synagogue over Yom Kippur) may have been one of the
biggest in Jewish history.
The project’s website has received 14 million hits since the beginning of the year, and this past
Friday, as many as 8,000 people tried signing up at one time, crashing the server. As the sun dips
below the horizon on October 24, an estimated one million people worldwide will be participating
in the initiative.
In unprecedented fashion, Nobel Prize winners, writers, politicians, sportsmen, musicians and
celebrities have joined revered rabbis and rosh yeshivas in lending their support and voicing their
commitment to the cause. Hong Kong and Tokyo are “keeping it together”, as are Lima and
Manila, Addis Ababa and Abuja, and Vilna and Venice. They are joined by around 50 cities in Israel,
over 100 cities in the US, and more than 340 cities in 35 countries around the world.
Welcome to the Shabbat Project.
First South Africa, now it’s the rest of the world
The concept is simple: Jews of all walks of life, from across the spectrum – religious, secular and
traditional; young and old, from all corners of the world – uniting to experience one full Shabbat
together, in full accordance with Jewish law.
The Shabbat Project was introduced in South Africa in 2013 to quite astonishing effect. On the
Shabbat over which it ran, close to 70 percent of the country’s 75,000 Jews kept Shabbat in full,
most for the first time in their lives. Perhaps more significantly, the initiative drew people together
in ways never seen before.
In the aftermath, many wrote in from around the world, wanting to bring the initiative to their
own cities and communities. And so, the international Shabbat Project was born.
It has already been described as "an experiment that has no precedent in modern Jewish history,”
and “the most ambitious Jewish unity initiative ever undertaken,” with final preparations now
feverishly underway coordinated by around 1500 partners in 340 cities.
“The Shabbat Project is an opportunity for the entire Jewish world to keep one complete Shabbat
together – from Friday evening just before sunset on October 24, until Saturday night after the
stars have come out on October 25,” says South African Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, who
originated the Shabbat Project last year in South Africa, and whose ideas and vision have enabled
the project to go global in 2014. “The beauty of this is that it is so practical and manageable. It’s
only one Shabbat. It’s something everyone can do.”
The Shabbat Project is not merely about performing a symbolic gesture to acknowledge Shabbat,
but rather about keeping it in full. For Goldstein, authenticity is everything.
“This approach is predicated on the idea that the real energy of Shabbat – its transformative
power – is wholly dependent on immersing oneself in the full Shabbat experience.”
Keeping it together
The tagline of the Shabbat Project, “Keeping it together,” neatly encapsulates the twin ideals of
the initiative – unity and wellbeing.
“Keeping it together means keeping our lives together,” Goldstein explains. “Of course, there is
the good food, sound sleep and deep relaxation to look forward to on Shabbat, but there’s more.
Shabbat restores us, not just in a physical sense, but emotionally and spiritually as well, so that we
emerge on Saturday night as new human beings ready to face the week with all of its challenges
and opportunities.”
“Keeping it Together” is an allusion to the unique restorative powers – the opportunity for deep
physical, emotional and spiritual rejuvenation – which the full Shabbat experience affords. This is
especially relevant in a modern world in which society is bombarded with technology and
gadgetry; where what is truly important often takes a backseat.
“A unique tranquility and intimacy permeates our homes on Shabbat,” says Goldstein. “No one
has to answer the phone or rush off. No one is distracted by the screens of information and
entertainment that saturate our world. We are left with a remarkable, uninterrupted haven of
love and connection, which allows us to appreciate and focus on what we have in our lives.”
He believes that Shabbat has a special power and resonance for our time.
“Shabbat enables us to momentarily set aside the distractions, demands and pressures of daily
life, offering us the time and space to renew our inner selves, and to revisit and reinvigorate our
most important relationships,” says Goldstein. “Shabbat can hold us together in a society where
everything seems to be pulling us apart.”
“It’s going to be awesome”
Mayim Bialik, three-times Emmy-nominated actress of smash-hit sitcom, The Big Bang Theory and
a trained neuroscientist, has written extensively on the importance of face-to-face time with one’s
family while not working, and specifically about the lessons of Shabbat in setting aside a day of the
week free of the trappings of technology. Over the past few weeks, Bialik has emerged as a proud,
vocal ambassador for the Shabbat Project. In a recent post, she called on her many fans around
the world to “try one Shabbat,” assuring them: “it’s going to be awesome in the most peaceful,
quiet, restorative, and unifying way possible.”
The multi-award winning US entertainer and American Idol and X Factor judge, Paula Abdul has
also joined other international singers (including fellow Grammy honoree, indy folk-rocker Lisa
Loeb, and US Billboard Hot 100 hitmaker and Brit Award nominee, Alex Clare) in lending her voice
to the cause.
“Shabbat is very important to me because in a way it’s my Club Med in life,” Abdul reflects in a
recent video interview. “I know when Shabbat comes, I can be me – no paparazzi, no invasion of
my privacy. I can always look forward to the end of the week and say, ‘Thank God I have Shabbat’.
“We’re living in a world where social media and our jobs pull us away from the most basic human
comfort zones – being with family and enjoying human company and connecting with God without
the interruptions from the phone or the TV.”
Abdul calls the Shabbat Project, “A phenomenal initiative… that can bring everyone back to their
inner happiness, bring Jews together, and preserve our traditions, our families and our sanity.”
Boxer, Dmitry Salita, is another champion of the Shabbat Project. “Shabbat gives you the
opportunity to take a deep breath of fresh air and makes you realize there is another dimension to
life other than the everyday tasks and responsibilities,” says the WBA and IBF international
welterweight champion, who has thrown his name into the ring along with a few other wellknown sportsmen, including basketballer Tamir Goodman (the “Jewish Jordan”) and former Miami
Dolphins offensive lineman and Super Bowl winner Alan Veingrad.
Shabbat is an opportunity to focus on another set of responsibilities,” he says. “It’s a time to be
with friends and family, a time to focus on your relationships with them and with God. It’s a time
to disconnect from the ever-pressing burdens of weekday life. On Shabbat, you can’t pick up your
phone or switch on your TV – but this, in fact, is what makes the experience so holy and special.”
Senator Joe Lieberman has also come out in support of the initiative.
“I was amazed when I heard what happened (last year) in South Africa – this whole idea of getting
as many Jews as possible of all levels of observance and non-observance to commit to putting
everything down for 25 hours and observing this Shabbat together…” says the author of The Gift of
Rest (2011), an account of Lieberman’s spiritual journey through the American corridors of power,
and a moving testament to how Shabbat in particular enriched not just his personal life, but his
professional career as well.
“Watching the videos I was quite taken with what was clearly the growing and deepening sense of
community that swept over people as a result of this experience. I am very excited that Goldstein
and his team are taking it on the road – I think the Jewish world needs the Shabbat Project at this
moment in our history.”
Lieberman is of course alluding to the simple meaning of “Keeping It Together” – the unifying
experience of literally keeping Shabbat together – as one Jewish people, and as individuals,
families and communities all over the world, all at the same time.
Thus far, it’s this unity factor more than anything else that people seem to be responding to.
Indeed, one of the unique aspects of the Shabbat Project is that all factional identities – all
denominations, affiliations, ideologies, and political differences – are put to the side.
The message couldn’t be timelier.
“At this moment in time,” says Goldstein, “in the aftermath of the Gaza War – and the pressures
Jews everywhere have felt in its wake – the international Shabbat Project provides us with a
unique, historic opportunity to give birth to a new sense of Jewish unity and Jewish identity. As
Jews around the world, we will be doing this together. The power of that shared experience is
unimaginable.”
The international Shabbat Project is taking place around the world over the Shabbat of Parshat
Noach, on 24/25 October 2014.