Chief Rabbi visits Shenley as congregation looks to past and future

Chief Rabbi Visits Shenley As Congregation Looks To Past And Future

Thu 18 Jun 13:00

Please find below an article featured in this weeks Elstree and Borehamwood Times reviewing the Induction:

"HOPE for the future was mixed with sadness at the induction ceremony of Shenley's new rabbi.

Rabbi Natan Levy was officially welcomed as the community's religious leader by Britain's Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks at a service in The Old Chapel, in Porters Park Drive, on Sunday.

Chief Rabbi Sacks said Rabbi Levy was an unusual Rabbi for an unusual congregation.

“We are a people who believe in the power of community to which each of us has a contribution to play,” he said.

“May you encourage each other and may you inspire each other in the years to come.”

Both rabbis thanked people for attending, including MP James Clappison and local headteachers.

Nobody in the room could forget the last time an induction had taken place in the town.

That was in 2004 and the person they welcomed to their community was the young Rabbi Shmuli Kass, who died of cancer in October 2007, aged just 30.

“We are blessed not just by those who are here but those who are not here as well,” Rabbi Levy said.

“This is a celebration tinged with sadness. The Shenley Jewish community would not been here today without the vision and leadership of Rabbi Shmuli Kass.

“Our gathering is a consecration of his memory and what we achieve together from this moment we will achieve in his merit.”

Chief Rabbi Sacks also urged the congregation to create a strong community in Rabbi Kass's memory and move beyond grief.

The community has only been in existance since 2000 and still does not have its own building.

Speakers joked about how the ark, an ornate structure in many synagogues, came from IKEA and was wheeled into the chapel for each service but said how they yearned for a permanent home.

Shenley United Jewish Community chairman Alan Hirschowitz spoke about how his 11-year-old son and his friends had stones thrown at them by other boys this month and said Shenley's Jews could make a difference to cross-cultural understanding in the town if they officially moved in.

But Rabbi Levy said the community had a deep strength and compared Shenley's IKEA ark to the ark of broken tablets which Moses smashed when he saw the Israelites worshipping the golden calf and then wheeled into the desert.

“We are not all of one type nor of one belief, we have wheels on our ark and terrible loss in our past.

“One day soon we will have our own synagogue. One day soon we will take the wheels off our ark and settle down."