Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue

Congratulations to Ros & Ray Ellis who have just celebrated 35 years of marriage. (1975 - 2010)

Debra and Simon were married on Sunday 29th August 2010 at their home in Epping Essex

Rabbi Larry Becker of Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue officiated and Sylvie Sugarman was the Marriage Registrar.

On Sunday 29th August 2010 Rebecca Cohen Married Josh Gershon at West London Synagogue. Rabbi Larry Becker of Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue officiated. The Cohen family have been members of the synagogue for many years with Rebecca's father Mitch being a past Chair of Council. Rebecca was Bat Mitzvah at Sukkat Shalom and taught for many years in our Cheder.

The choir of West London Synagogue sang beautifully and Frank Godson sang the Cheva Berachot.

Jocelyn Shepherd was the Marriage Registrar on the day.

We offer our sincere congratulations to all of the Cohen's extended family.

Now is the month Elul, the time of spiritual preparation. We each seek to become the perfect Rabbi, full of knowledge, good deeds, humility and, most important of all, true repentance. But as there is no such perfect Rabbi, from whom shall we learn the secret of how to obtain this goal? Who can show us the path they themselves have not trodden?

I suggest we might start by examining words of wisdom from three of our fellows.

I joined Council in November and have taken on board the responsibility for being the Jack Petchey Co-ordinator. For those unfamiliar with this award I thought it useful to give some information about the award scheme which is a recognition of the achievements of young people. The synagogue has Silver membership of the ‘Jack Petchey’ scheme which means that we can nominate 6 children (usually from Cheder) to gain the award.

When is ish ..ish... and how do we keep it from becoming either ISH or -ish?

Don’t worry I will translate the above question into English, or at least Americanish.

I have recently become fascinated by the contradictory amount of emphasis indicated by the suffix ish. It can be a state of being so fundamental to our self-image as to inform every aspect of our lives. When I say that I am Jewish I am pointing out a part of my existence that is the core of my being. No ritual or process or experience is truly capable of changing this.

Victoria Crooks and Howard Kovler were married at Quendons in Essex on Sunday 11th July 2010.

The service took place under the auspices of Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue and was conducted by Rabbi Larry Becker who was assisted by Sylvie Sugarman our Marriage Secretary.

Marylin Daniels Garcia sang various pieces during the service and Frank Godson sang the Cheva Berachot.

On Sunday 4th of July over 60 members turned up for a chat, tea, sandwiches and cake.

It was a very lovely day and it was nice to sit in the grounds of the shul.

Many familiar faces were there and some not so familiar.

Andrew Fox turned up with this very interesting machine for people to ride.

Rosalie Hirst set up a crafts stall which proved very popular.

It is intended to make this an annual event.

Maybe you will come next year.

Torah Lunches

The synagogue holds monthly Family services that are followed by Torah Lunches.

During the family services the Rabbi holds a service especially designed for the younger members of the congregation (and their parents if they wish).

Afterwards there is a Torah Lunch where we share morsels of food and knowledge in an informal environment. If you have young children and would like to attend the Torah Lunch please let the Rabbi know so that we can arrange for the children to be looked after by one of our Madrichim.
They next Family services and

I (Sue Rosner) joined Council in November and have taken on board the responsibility for being the Jack Petchey Co-ordinator. For those unfamiliar with this award I thought it useful to give some information about the award scheme which is a recognition of the achievements of young people. The synagogue has Silver membership of the ‘Jack Petchey’ scheme which means that we can nominate 6 children (usually from Cheder) to gain the award.

When is ish ..ish... and how do we keep it from becoming either ISH or -ish?

Don’t worry I will translate the above question into English, or at least Americanish.

I have recently become fascinated by the contradictory amount of emphasis indicated by the suffix ish. It can be a state of being so fundamental to our self-image as to inform every aspect of our lives. When I say that I am Jewish I am pointing out a part of my existence that is the core of my being. No ritual or process or experience is truly capable of changing this.

What do we believe and What do we do?” Reform Judaism and the MRJ

On Wednesday June 16th Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, Executive Director of the Movement for Reform Judaism, discussed several texts relating to the values of progressive Judaism. This discussion lead up to a further discussion on what we, as progressive Jews, believe in.

In addition, she shared with us the Movement for Reform Judaism's view of the future including, programmes supporting synagogues, rabbis, youth, students, interfaith and schools.

The Erev Shabbat service will be followed by an Oneg delivered by Walter Loebl.

The topic will be Serpents and the Bible

Service starts at 8.00pm

Open House - London - General Information

On Sunday 30th May 2010 Amy Sugarman married Adam Turtle at Slaugham Manor Haywards Heath West Sussex. Both Amy and Adam have been members of the synagogue for some time. They met on the Gold Coast in Australia a few years ago.

The wedding was conducted by Rabbi Larry Becker with Jocelyn Shepherd officiating as Marriage Secretary. The chuppah took place in the grounds of a ruined manor house. Over 200 guests attended and witnessed the ceremony. Tracy Pedro sang for part of the service with the bride's father Simon Sugarman singing the Cheva Berachot.

Mrs Hacker (referring to backbench MPs) But aren’t they underpaid in fact?

PM Jim Hacker – Underpaid? Backbench MPs? Darling being an MP is a vast subsidised ego trip. It is a job for which you need no qualifications, there are no compulsory hours of work, no performance standards, you get a warm room and subsidized meals for a bunch of self-opinionated windbags and busybodies, they only find that people take them seriously because they have the letters MP after their name. How can they be underpaid when there are about 200 applicants for every vacancy?

Congratulations to Ellis Robinson

On his Barmitzvah which took place on Saturday the 1st May

Ellis took a good part of the service and sang his portion of the Torah beautifully.

Ellis also produced a very interesting Drasha and Study Passage.

These pieces are listed below.

MY STUDY PASSAGE IS CALLED MUSIC

For my study passage I would like to talk about music… something perhaps we take for granted and is so much a part of our lives, and has been since time begun. In fact the earliest forms of communication are believed to have been through music.

Visit to Sinclair House Sunday 18th April for Yom Ha’atzmaut.

The students and staff of Sukkat Shalom arrived at Sinclair House at 9:30am for a day of celebration in honour of Israel’s 62nd birthday Yom Ha’atzmaut.

On Friday 17th April David Finlay came along to the synagogue and conducted an Oneg on Tzedek after the Erev Shabbat service.

Tzedek works with partners, projects and communities abroad, regardless of their race or religion, providing direct support to help local people so they can eventually help themselves. They seek to raise awareness, educate and encourage Jews to recognise, understand and act on to their Jewish responsibilities concerning extreme poverty around the world. Tzedek is the UK Jewish community's response to extreme poverty in the developing world.