Community
United Synagogue sees eastern promise in new Herts community
Borehamwood East starting Shabbat services next week to serve a growing catchment area
January 29, 2020 17:23
Borehamwood East starting Shabbat services next week to serve a growing catchment area
January 29, 2020 17:23The embryonic Borehamwood East community is to hold its first service on Friday night next week.
It is the latest stage of development in the area after the United Synagogue appointed Rabbi Levi and Shternie Goldgrab a year ago to nurture it.
The project has been overseen by Benjamin Vos of the US community division, who explained: “We saw a lot of housing being built. We always look at places contiguous to Jewish communities where things are happening. We did our research and we know there are Jews there.”
The Studio Way development, on the eastern edge of Borehamwood, is around a mile away from the main Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue, the largest US congregation with more than 4,000 members. BES already has a successful satellite in the south of the area which meets at Yavneh College.
Mr Vos said the idea would be for the new project to “be part of the BES family when it graduates from our nest”.
The Goldgrabs, who are from a Lubavitch background, have already been running activities for Borehamwood East residents, among them a pre-Rosh Hashanah barbecue in the local square and a craft event for women.
Rabbi Goldgrab was raised in New York and has experience of rabbinic work in Thailand and Puerto Rico. His wife, originally from Leeds, is the daughter of former Ilford United Synagogue minister Rabbi Chaim Rapoport. She taught for three years at Beit Shvidler primary in Edgware. The couple met in Brooklyn and have one child.
The Goldgrabs said: "We are thrilled to be part of this new community which is more like a start-up than a traditional synagogue. We want to create a place where any Jew, of any background, will feel comfortable. We've already seen that our current 'East Siders' are attracted by the idea of a tight-knit community in the east of Borehamwood where we're building an intimate community centre with chilled and informal programming for people of all ages - young professionals, families and older people too."
Estimating that there could be “hundreds of households” in the catchment area, Mr Vos was excited about the potential. “The Goldgrabs are the perfect fit for the project and they are making a community where, if you looked at it 10 years ago, there were few Jews.” Services would be held every few weeks for a “trial season”.
Other areas where the US has invested in activities in recent years include Mill Hill East — which became a full member of the organisation two years ago — and Hatfield.
