On the 2nd Seder night Sunday 13th April 2025, members of Brentwood Reform once again came together to celebrate Pesach. Following the very successful formation of used for the last 2 years, members brought their own vegetarian or fish main course, with all other ritual food provided. William & Frederick thanks to practising with mum, Andrea, sang the Manishtana beautifully. It’s such a joy and mitzvah to have children to sing the manishtana at a communal Seder, particularly for a small community.  We had a delicious assortment of pesadik sweet treats with our tea & coffee to finish the meal. This year young Alena, 4 years old, attending her first…

On the evening of 26th January, Brentwood Reform once again joined with Christian Friend of Israel, (CFI) to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Holocaust Memorial Day. Moira of CFI opened with a very moving address to over 300 people who were present. Or guest speaker, a very knowledge John Levy spoke very movingly, recounting the story of his family experience of this tragic time in the history of the Jews and indeed the world.  Further addresses were made by the Mayor of Brentwood, Mark Haigh and the Rt Honorable Alex Burghart. Natasha of Brentwood Reform led the lighting of 7 yahrzeit candles, 1 representing each of the million Jews slaughtered in the holocaust plus this year 1 for…

So, this year 2024/5785 was somewhat unusual in that the first night of Chanukkiah coincided with Christmas day. We were sure no one would turn up for the first candle, so our community got together for our Chanukkah party on the 5th night. Natasha recounted the story of the Maccabees, then the children gathered around for some great Chanukkah activities, even our youngest member, Ezra, at only 20 months joined in. Coloring in is a very serious business you know. Making his own dreidel was a little above him this year though. The other children all seemed to enjoy the activities, particularly personalizing their own wooden dreidels. It was a…

On a rather wet, chilly morning, the members of Brentwood Reform met up to celebrate Sukkot 2024 -5785. Despite the weather, we all enjoyed our turn at shaking the lulav and smelling the beautiful etrog. This can be seen in the faces of young William and our Chair Judith. Natatsha led the service in the Sukka with a lovely Sukkot story that evenb the youngest members of our congregation could understand and enjoy.   The intention was to have tea and refreshments in the Sukka.  However, due to the rain and lack of space to accommodate the fairly large crowd, we just partook of a token fruit munch then repaired indoors for a chat,…

On the evening of Saturday 27th January, Brentwood Reform Synagogue, together with Christian Friends of Israel (CFI) came together for the annual service of Commemoration, to remember the 6 million Jewish people and other murdered by the Nazi’s in The Holocaust. Natalie Cumming Author of The Fiddle gave a very moving talk about her family and the Violin that saved the life of her Aunt Rosa when she was imprisoned in Auschwitz and later in Bergen Belsen. The Violin, which was badly damaged, was repaired expert John Dilworth via the TV program The Repair Shop. The programme and repair of the Violin was screened at the HMD event. Following the…

On the 3rd day of Chanukah, our congregation got together to celebrate this beautiful, poignant festival. Obviously, as with any festival there was food involved, following the service, Latkes and doughnuts aplenty were enjoyed. Most people brought their own Chanukiah, which with a bit of adult help, and after reciting the brachas, were lit by the children. This year’s children’s activities included making Chanukiah out of chocolate waffles, clementine segments and raspberries or glace cherries according to each child’s preference. The children also coloured in cardboard dreidels which were then taken home to be cut out and stuck to make their own dreidel. Having made their chanukiah, some of the…

On Shabbat 11th November, Andrea, following a successful appearance at the Bet Din on 17th October, took the final step to become a fully fledged Jewish woman with her acceptance service. Andrea, pictured with Rabbi David, husband Cliff and their 3 children, William, Frederick and Maximillian.  Andrea and Cliff joined the congregation 13 years ago and almost 3 years ago Andrea decided the time was right for her to convert to Judaism. Andrea was presented with a beautiful gold Magen David belonging to one of our congregants Steve Young’s, late wife Ann. Steve made the presentation, a very emotional moment.   As a congregation we are all very proud of her achievement and…