As usual WHAM will be having a full complement of services over the High Holydays. With the exception of Kol Nidre and Ne'ilah, (which will be in the Eli Chinn Hall as usual) and Simchat Torah (which will be in the nursery), all services will be in the Beth Hamedrash. More details inside.
This edition is edited by Andrew Hougie with thanks to Geoffrey Charin, Dan Cohen, Lucy Coleman, Deborah Frieze, Rabbi Harris, David Smith and Anthony and Ruth Warrens.
Enjoy ...
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Bags of content including:
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WHAM is exceptionally lucky to be able to announce that the well-known and highly controversial Rabbi Shmuel Boteach will be at WHAM for Rosh Hashanah and will be giving the address.
Enclosed with this edition, you may find a Timetable of High Holydays and Festival Services from The Hampstead Synagogue. If you have not received a timetable and wish to attend the High Holydays services at WHAM, please let us know. The timetable says "admittance by ticket only". WHAM obviously cannot encourage you to carry a ticket on Shabbat or Yom Kippur so alternative security arrangements have been made to enable those who have been issued a ticket but have not brought it with them to be admitted. Please be tolerant of, and allow time for, the security checks.
If you are not a member of WHAM or The Hampstead Synagogue, we would ask you to consider making a voluntary donation to The Hampstead Synagogue as they are offering temporary membership to persons who wish to attend their services at up to UKP35 per person.
One final request. After Yom Kippur, we will be decorating the Succah at The Hampstead Synagogue (precise times to be announced). Please come along and help.
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Rabbi Harris will be giving a talk for The Hampstead Synagogue and WHAM on "Insights into the Book of Jonah and Yom Kippur" on Wednesday 18 September, 1996 at 8.15pm at 19 Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road.
Andrew White has agreed to speak at the Morning Service at WHAM on Shabbat Shuva (21 September, 1996).
On second day Succot (Sunday 29 September, 1996), WHAM will be having a Tea in the Succah at the home of Lionel and Sarah Davis, 166 Fordwych Road, London NW2 at 4pm. Please let us know if you wish to come. Children will be welcome.
WHAM will be having its usual travelling lunch immediately after the morning service. We will start at the home of David and Annabel Sinclair, 111 Cholmley Gardens and end at the home of Charles and Lucy Coleman. If you would like to come, please contact Tony Metzer (0171- 794 1591.
Season - H.E. Moshe Raviv The Hampstead Synagogue's next Shabbat luncheon will be on Saturday 12 October, 1996 when the guest speaker will be the Israeli Ambassador, His Excellency Moshe Raviv. WHAM will be having a table. Tickets UKP13.50 (cheques payable to Hampstead Synagogue Cultural Fund). Please contact Andrew Hougie (0181-451 3668) if you want to attend.
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| Festival and Shabbat commences Friday 13
September, 1996 at 7.05pm. | |
| First day Saturday 14 September, 1996 | |
|---|---|
| Morning Service | 8.30am |
| Kri'at HaTorah | 10.30am |
| Sermon - Rabbi Shmuel Boteach | |
| Second day Sunday 15 September, 1996 | |
| Morning Service | 8.30am |
| Kri'at HaTorah | 10.30am |
| Shofar | 11.15am |
| Sermon - Rabbi Shmuel Boteach | |
| Festival ends | 8.03pm |
| Morning Service | 10.00am |
| Andrew White has kindly agreed
to speak. |
| Sunday 22 September, 1996 | |
|---|---|
| Fast and Festival commences | 6.45pm |
| Kol Nidre | 7.00pm |
| Monday 23 September 1996 | |
| Morning Service | 9.30am |
| Kri'at HaTorah | 12.15pm |
| Yizkor | 1.00pm |
| Musaph | 1.15pm |
| Rabbi Harris has kindly agreed to
participate in an "Ask the Rabbi" session. | |
| There will be a visit to Westmount from
about 4.15pm. | |
| Mincha | 5.15pm |
| Ne'ilah | 6.30pm |
| Shofar (Fast Ends) | 7.44pm |
| Festival and Shabbat commences Friday 27
September, 1996 at 6.33pm. | |
| First day Saturday 28 September, 1996 | |
|---|---|
| Morning Service | 10.00am |
| Second day Sunday 29 September, 1996 | |
| Morning Service | 10.00am |
| Festival and Shabbat commences Friday 4
October, 1996 at 6.17pm. | |
| Saturday 5 October, 1996 | |
|---|---|
| Morning Service | 10.00am |
Evening Service on Saturday 5 October, 1996 will be at 7.15pm commencing with joint Hakafot in The Hampstead Synagogue followed by WHAM's own service.
A party will follow after the service (venue to be announced).
Morning service on Sunday 6 October 1996 will be at 10.00am and will be followed by the Simchat Torah Lunch.
The festival ends at 7.14pm.
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During the present Jewish month of Elul I always remember having heard in yeshiva that the "Nazir", Rabbi David Cohen, of blessed memory, father of the current Chief Rabbi of Haifa, did not speak between the beginning of Elul and the end of Yom Kippur.
Very few people can expect to emulate that spiritual feat, but it illuminates the seriousness with which Elul should be taken. It is a glorious opportunity for self- analysis, for thinking about where we are Jewishly, for trying to take some of those steps we've always wanted to take, to become nobler people.
Elul alludes in its Hebrew spelling to the words in Shir Hashirim, the Song of Songs, "Ani ledodi vedodi li" - "I am for my beloved as my beloved is for me". G-d, Israel's Beloved, eases the path of return to Him in Elul. Let us take this Elul more seriously than ever, and merit a New Year of blessing and goodness for ourselves, our families, our community and our people.
Together with Sara and our daughters Yehudit and Nechama, I wish WHAM shana tova umetuka.
Rabbi Michael HarrisReturn to Contents
While we're not quite naturalised citizens yet, six weeks have somehow passed since Carole (Fedida) managed the impossible and helped us, and what seemed like most of the contents of 17 Narcissus Road, on to one of Richard Branson's aircraft. We only got there by abandoning all attempts at sleeping in three of the six nights preceding our departure. I have no recollection of taking off - I was asleep in my 'plane seat before the doors of the cabin had been closed. [Hilly was not in the least sleepy and the "cough mixture" was in the cabin bag under Anthony's feet! So she and I spent 5 hours "circuit training", making friends with our fellow passengers and the crew!]
We spent the first two weeks setting up our lives, and principally attempting to find somewhere to live. We started off with rather pessimistic feelings. Accommodation in Boston is expensive, is often of poor quality, usually let completely unfunished and is very scarce. The "realtors" seemed little help - they are going to let (or sell) a property very easily, so they don't need to work hard on your behalf, even though you, the tenant, will be paying their fee - usually a month's rent. This was all we needed given that in London we had just shelled out our first month's rental income in advance as our fee to the agent who had let our London home.
Enter the Jewish community. I had kept in touch with friends I had made here as a student in the '80s and Ruth's uncle and aunt in New Jersey have friends here. In addition we had placed "Nice young family coming to Boston for a year ..." messages on a couple of shul e-mail lists. We have landed on our feet by being introduced to a frum mathematics professor who is taking a year's sabbatical in Princeton. We're taking their five-bedroomed, furnished house as from 1 September. It was worth the extra move and delay in completely unpacking - all that room, no furnishing from scratch, a kosher kitchen and no realtor's fee!
[A friend arranged a furnished flat for us for August. It is right on the T (tube/trolley) line, 5 doors from Beacon Kosher - imagine a completely glatt kosher Country Market with an in-store bakery, supermarket-style array of fresh prepacked meat and chickens hot from the rotisserie oven at USD7.99 - and over the road from a Star Market - like Safeways/Sainsbury except most of their own brand products have the "OU" hechsher.]
The Jewish community also helped us find wheels. We bought a 10-year old Oldsmobile station wagon (estate) from a car mechanic cum car salesman cum Lubavitch rabbi. Quandrary: when a rav tells you he has replaced x, y and z parts and assures you the car is good for a couple more Boston winters, can you/do you ask for an AAA report? Driving on the wrong side of the road hasn't been too hard to get used to - particularly with tram tracks dividing essentially main roads into parallel one-ways.
[So, we have a station wagon to meet you at the airport and room to put you up - so long as you don`t all arrive en masse.]
Boston is a lovely city. It has a lot of beautiful neighborhoods, as well as a disproportionate share of important American historical places of interest. Essentially, many of the important episodes leading up to the American rebellion in 1776 happened here or hereabouts, as did the beginning of the War itself. They make a lot of this and have some excellent historical displays and presentations. There is also an enormous Irish-American population here, and sometimes it is appropriate to remind our hosts of my Scottish roots and that Ruth is just as much a colonial as they are. Hilly is fortunately not old enough to have developed a London accent - so long as we don't put her in the Union Jack T-shirt and shorts set, we should be able to hide her Englishness.
[We are trying to be tourists on Sundays, either in Boston or making day trips. There are so many attractions - historical, scenic, usually both - within 1-2 hours drive. We have been away for one weekend, up the coast to New Hampshire and southern Maine, i.e. Kennebunkport. We waved at George and Barbara's place - Anthony's British reserve (and the security guards on the gate) wouldn't have let us call in without phoning first. We are planning to travel a bit further afield shortly. Anthony's parents are coming over from Glasgow for the month of October. They have not visited the US before and have Niagara, New England fall colours, New York and Washington DC on their wish list. Hilly and I will go with them to the NE (fall colours being somewhat lost on Anthony) and Anthony intends to leave the lab for a week to come south en famille.]
Boston also has an huge number of hospitals for its population and an amazing number of them are World-renowned. One of the most famous, Beth Israel Hospital, was set up as a response to the Jewish quota system of the long-established aristocratic (by US standards) Massachusetts General Hospital (where I am working). I was struck on entering the BI, which looks (and is) like any other big hospital, that instead of the usual sign to Hospital Chapel there was a notice indicating the way to the Hospital Synagogue. I suppose it was like that at the old, lamented London Jewish.
I am enjoying my work in a friendly and very well appointed lab. It always takes some time to get things going and the beginning can be frustrating in that respect, but I have the feeling that we are moving now.
The Jewish community is well organised and the distinctions between Orthodox and progressive denominations is well demarcated. There is one large Orthodox shul (Young Israel, currently being renovated after a fire) and several small shteibls. The Jewish bush telegraph works very effectively and on several occasions, someone has said to me: "So you are the Scottish kidney doctor from London who's over here doing research".
[Hilly and I are identified as the family of same by mothers of other toddlers we are meeting in the nieghbourhood's parks. The parks (and schoolgrounds open to the wider community in the holidays and out of school hours) have wonderful play facilites which Hilly is thoroughly enjoying, climbing ladders, crossing swinging bridges and swishing down spiral slides. I have been enjoying being a full-time Mum for six weeks. With the move into the house the "holiday" ends: I have to decide tonight between a playgroup and a child-minder, both local and frum. Having distributed my CV, revamped into a "resume", I have received my first freelance proofreading job.]
Among the Bostonians we met via the Internet is a young family who are about to come to London for two years. We are pleased that timimg was such that we didn't pass in mid-Atlantic, but had an opportunity to meet up with Debbie and Ricky Kurzman and their daughter Alissa (3 days older than Hilly) and swap useful phone numbers and hints. Ricky is enrolled in the two year MBA course at the London Business School. We have given them several names to get in touch with in WHAM and trust that they will find a warm reception in West Hampstead over the Yomim Tovim. Like us, they will initially be looking for somewhere to live - if anyone knows of a 2/3-bedroomed flat to let, they would love to hear from you. They can be contacted by email: rickykur@aol.com.
Anthony's parents are with us for October, but the Warrens' B&B is otherwise open for bookings. We would love to hear from you, so please drop us a line (you don`t need to be booking the spare room): 52 Lane Park, Brighton, Boston MA 02135; ph/fax 00 1 617 782 1042; Email: 100705.3453@compuserve.com.
Wishing everyone in WHAM a healthy, happy New Year - Gamar chamitah tovah...
Anthony and Ruth WarrensReturn to Contents
No, this is not a review of a new book that some of you may have a special interest in reading. But yes, I did go there, and yes, William Sutcliffe was in my year, and for those of you who have read the book and are still confused, no he is not wej (as they say in Manchester) (I come from Manchester and I don't say "wej" - Ed).
So what this is, is that Andrew phoned me last week to write an article on my experience of coming to WHAM as a "new boy", who liked it so much he bought the company, or at least a flat round the corner.
Well, just over a year ago, I arrived in sunny West Hampstead, not knowing my WHAM from my HAM. Yes I was driven to the area not by the fantastic reputation of the community, but rather the Jubilee Line - working near Charing Cross as I do (and the fact it wasn't Hendon).
So, having been here a week or so, and being a good little boy (and in search of a free meal?) I took myself off to The Shul. Whereupon, having looked round the corner of the main shul and deciding "that s not really my cup of tea" (it was cold by then anyway), I saw the signs to WHAM, and made my merry way round the rabbit warren to the "alternative".
And how un-Anglo Jewry like the reception was. People said hello (although they did feel the necessity also to also ask my occupation, degree subject, A-Level results and the all important question of whether I went to the right school - you mean you can t tell?), and I was even given an aliyah (thanks Keith!). And then, as the icing on the cake, I was invited out for lunch - plan succeeds I think. And that is where you have it. Why did I stay? Because WHAM is a friendly, informal, non-judgmental community, where we encourage everybody to be involved, warmly welcome visitors and new faces, not just to our shul but to our homes as well. So to all of you who made me feel so welcome and fed me so many times - thank you.
Unfortunately, my story does not end there (although Andrew didn t realise this when he asked me to write this), because as with every good Jewish story, this one has a message. Some recent newcomers have expressed the view that WHAM has mislaid its spark, that no-one said hello, and no lunch invitations were forthcoming. Amazing given the fantastically warm welcome I received so recently, but nevertheless true. So a challenge to those of us who believe passionately in the future of WHAM to regain that "something special". To think again of the new faces, and of the people in need of feeding! The future of WHAM depends on it being a warm and welcoming place for new faces - it is up to us.
David SmithReturn to Contents
WHAM is delighted to announce that Paul Jacobus and Laurence Rose have accepted invitations to be Chatan Torah and Chatan Bereishit, respectively. They invite you to join them for a party (venue to be announced) following the service on Saturday night, 5 October, 1996.
Arba'a Minim may be ordered from The Hampstead Synagogue office at a price of UKP28.00 each.
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Anybody who has ever been to WHAM over Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur knows that they will find there a sense of community which is all too often lacking in other shuls. This perception is especially true for those who spent years "going home" for Yom Tov, which basically meant your parents' friends showing off their new grandchild and asking your parents what the point was in giving you all that education when you're still not even married yet.
For those who have never spent Yom Tov at WHAM, and are contemplating doing so for the first time, you will find yourself welcome. Please don't worry about whether you will find people like you; you will.
My Very Important Message is this: Nobody, unless they want to be, should be alone over Yom Tov. And it is a time of year when one can feel particularly vulnerable.
So please: If you would like to come to shul over Yom Tov, but don't have anywhere to eat; ring me. Or if you would like to come to shul but don't live locally, and would like somewhere to stay; ring me.
If you do live locally, and would be prepared to have an extra guest over Yom Tov, to eat with you or even to stay, please also ring me (because if you don't, I'll ring you anyway).
And if you are familiar with WHAM, and you see somebody at shul you don't recognise, please say hello to them. It can be very intimidating to walk into a strange community, particularly if you are alone. And after shul, please try to make sure that nobody goes home alone. If you find somebody who has nowhere to go, please either invite them home if you are able, or tell me, and we will find them somewhere to eat.
Last year, Rabbi Sliw suggested that we try to do one thing this year, one Mitzvah, which we didn't do last year. If you're running out of time before Yom Kippur and you haven't done your Mitzvah yet, here's your chance. Make an extra gefilte fish ball, and invite a guest to your table. The reward will be yours as well as theirs.
You can ring me at home in the evenings on 0181-452 9733; or at work on 0171-831 2626 (if you ring me at work, ask for Lucy Stone, and tell the receptionist it's about WHAM).
Shana TovaReturn to Contents
The Shabbat Lunch program will start again after the Chagim. If you have any good ideas for speakers, please let us know. We are always open to suggestions.
The Drama Group meets fortnightly and will be starting again soon. It offers an opportunity for all you would-be actors to participate in a warm friendly environment. Please contact Sarah Davis for more information on 0181-452 5137.
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People always ask me what's in this soup. Now they'll all know. Please leave a few sweet potatoes for me in Tesco.
I've no idea how many it serves - about 8. If it's not enough, use more ingredients.
You'll need:
one large onion
5-6 sweet potatoes
a couple of vegetable stock cubes
mild curry powder.
Slice the onion and cook until soft in olive oil. Do not brown. Peel and slice the sweet potatoes (hint: long thin ones are easier to deal with than short fat ones). Mix them in with the onion and sweat over a low heat with a lid on for a few minutes. Check to see that they're not sticking to the bottom of the pan. Take the lid off and cover with boiling water, so that all the vegetables are covered in liquid. Crumble in a couple of stock cubes. Season with salt and pepper and a level teaspoon of curry powder. Bring back to the boil. Turn down the heat. Cover. Leave to cook until either the vegetables are soft or you remember that you forgot to turn the soup off (WHAM accepts no responsibility for any damage suffered as a result of forgetting to turn the soup off - Ed). Liquidise with a Braun Multipractic (if you haven't got one, get one. You can't really live without one. You can liquidise your soup in the pan without getting any other crockery dirty. Actually get four - one milk, one meat, one parev and one for Paul Jacobus).
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I do not understand the big fuss about making mayonnaise. It takes about 30 seconds to make, it's much nicer than shop-bought, and provided that you've got a liquidiser with a hole in the lid, you can't go wrong. There are all sorts of handy hints if it does go wrong; but frankly, if you can't manage this, throw away the mess and go and buy a jar of Hellmans.
You will need:
a liquidiser with a hole in the lid
one raw egg
a few drops of lemon juice
half a teaspoon of mustard powder
half a teaspoon of sugar
salt and pepper
half a pint of tasteless vegetable oil (not
olive oil).
Whizz the raw egg with the lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper for a few seconds. With the liquidiser on a low speed, start to pour in the oil in a slow stream through the hole in the lid. Listen carefully. After about half a pint of oil, the sound will suddenly lower. Stop. That's it.
If you don't stop, you will have a puddle of unmixed oil on the top of your mayonnaise when you switch off, which you can pour off carefully.
If you want to be really adventurous, you can make dill mayonnaise, by adding dill to the mixture before you pour the oil in. Or you can make chive mayonnaise, by adding chives. Amazing. What you can't really do, is add more seasoning after it's made. So if you like it with more mustard, or more lemon, or more sugar, put more in next time. Don't try to add it once it's made.
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Continuing our series on jumbled WHAM members' names, can anyone hazard a guess as to who may secretly be such a political heavyweight?
This issue's anagram:
"HE RAN LEBANON"
Answers to Andrew Hougie on 0181-451 3668. Precedent suggests your chances of actually winning a prize if you're the first to answer an AnagWHAM are rather low!
If you received this newsletter by post, then you are on the WHAM mailing list. Please let us know (at the address below) if your address on the label is incorrect. The mailing list is held on computer. If you object to your personal data being stored on computer by WHAM, please let us know. If you are a WHAM member, we'd much rather you didn't. If you are not a WHAM member, your name will then be removed from the mailing list. The address for mailing list enquiries is: WHAM Mailing List, West Hampstead Alternative Minyan, 1 Dennington Park Road, London NW6 1AX.
Please print this form and mail it, with payment if necessary, to Andrew Hougie, 128 Chatsworth Road, London NW2 5QU. Alternatively you may complete the online form below.
__ YES! I would love to come to the events I have ticked below:
__ Sunday 29 September Tea in the Succah
__ Sunday 6 October Travelling Lunch
__ Saturday 12 October Hampstead Synagogue Lunch
H.E. Moshe Raviv
Name __________________________________________________________________
Home tel _________________________ Day tel ____________________________
Address _______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________ Postcode ______________
Email address: _____________________ @ ______________________________
__ Tick here if you object to having your personal data stored on computer
Or just complete this form online. We'll need a cheque for the lunch tho'
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