Jersey’s Jewish community wants you to join them for festival or Shabbat services — and promises a home-cooked kosher dinner, too.
“We’re not worried whether the person who’s coming is Orthodox, traditional, Reform, Liberal, or even if they’re not Jewish,” says Stephen Regal, president of the “Jewsey” community. “We welcome people warmly. And you don’t have to wear a suit.”
The Channel Islands were famously the only British territory occupied by the Nazis, from 1940 to 1945, and because of that the tiny Jewish community of Jersey receives constant empathy and support from the general population of the island, and its government.
Every year Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated and attended by numerous officials on the island.
Regal recalls the “outpouring of outrage” from the local population when the synagogue was daubed with antisemitic graffiti by a neo-Nazi group one Shavuot.
“[Antisemitism] happens all the time in England, but it never happens in Jersey,” says Regal, detailing the many prominent local figures who promptly rallied around and visited the site: the Anglican Dean of Jersey, the chief of police, the rector.
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Beach life: In Jersey you’re always near the shoreline (Photo: Getty Images)
“It was a fairly minor crime in the run of things,” says Regal, “but the local rector brought us a massive bouquet of flowers.” They also presented a book of condolence that hundreds of people signed, while staff from the local garage came down with their steamer to clean off the graffiti.
“It shows the happy relationship between us and the general population, not just with the people, but at government level.”
That governmental support was experienced in 2007, when the UK’s last outbreak of foot and mouth disease hit British livestock, and Jersey closed its borders to fresh produce.
Since the outbreak coincided with Passover, when Regal and his wife drive to London and fill it with kosher-for-Pesach food from Golders Green for families in Jersey, he went to the Department of Agriculture to explain his predicament. They instantly gave consent to bring non-UK produce through customs. “It was unbelievably easy,” says Regal.
When his parents first came to Jersey in 1959, the law stated that all imported meat had to be taken to the abattoir for inspection, to ensure that it was fit for consumption. His father approached the government. “He said, ‘Look, I’m Jewish.
"'Our meat is inspected anyway. Is there any way we can get around this?’” recalls Regal. It took mere days for the law to be changed and for customs officers to be informed that kosher meat could be imported into Jersey free of inspection. “That shows how the government is open to assisting us in any way possible.”
That’s not to say it’s easy to keep kashrut, when factoring in the high shipping costs, however there is a kosher section in the local Waitrose, selling mainly tinned and dry goods such as Mrs Elswood cucumbers, wine from Israel, matzah and cakes.
When the Regals arrived from Hendon, there was no organised community and certainly no synagogue. Regal recalls the family’s first Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there and his mother, “the archetypal Jewish wife of the 1950s”, warning his father that if there wasn’t a synagogue there next year, they’d return to London. “And sure enough, there was a shul in Jersey the next year, because my father and three others energised things.”
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The shul's inauguration (Photo: Handout)
For the first ten years, they were “wandering Jews”. With Jersey split into 12 parishes, the rector of St Brelade, the parish where the shul is now based, offered them the use of a church hall for services— for free.
“The church authorities would not accept one penny of rent,” recalls Regal of their close ties with the Christian, and also Muslim, communities. An ark was built and they obtained a set of Torah scrolls, which would travel with them to the church hall and back home afterwards until the next time.
In 1970, they were offered the opportunity to buy a disused Methodist chapel, which they converted into a shul with a succah and it was consecrated the following year by the then Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, together with Reverend Malcolm Weisman. They have run weekly Shabbat services ever since.
Sixty-five families — around 100 people — are members of the synagogue community, which is traditional, and runs Orthodox services. But all are welcome. “As long as someone is halachically Jewish, they’re welcome to participate in the service,” says Regal.
“And if you’re not, you’re equally welcome to attend and will be greeted with great friendship. And invariably you will be invited round for dinner after the service.”
Regal understandably fears for the future of an ageing community whose youngest member is 33 and whose average age is above 70.
“We’re trying to be as innovative as we can,” he says, referring to community events such as the children’s Purim party, Chanukah games and magic shows to encourage participation.
“We have had some suggestions of rearranging our services in ways which the committee is discussing, but it is difficult to compromise. Our service is in Hebrew, and more people may be interested if we were Liberal or Reform, but we’re not.”
Prospective Jerseyites might however be interested to learn that the 120-square kilometre island is a “fabulous” place to bring up children, where you are always close to a beach, sports facilities are plentiful, and where the crime rate is low.
“You can walk the streets with impunity,” says Regal. “And in the morning, I see which way the wind is flying to decide which beach I’m going to.
"The beaches are some of the best that I’ve seen anywhere in the world.” With one of the largest tidal ranges in the world, reaching 12 metres, the sandy beaches are naturally cleaned twice a day.
“My dream,” says Regal, “is to have a viable, ongoing community. Sadly, we’re struggling with that at the moment. My dream is that we get back to the enthusiasm of the 1970s when I had to book a seat for Kol Nidre.”
