Community
Why booming Mill Hill East shul is young in all senses
US congregation founded in 2016 is bucking the trend on service attendances. Now it is celebrating the arrival of a Sefer Torah
November 19, 2021 10:02
US congregation founded in 2016 is bucking the trend on service attendances. Now it is celebrating the arrival of a Sefer Torah
November 19, 2021 10:02While many shuls are struggling to return to pre-pandemic numbers for services, the burgeoning Mill Hill East community reports that attendances are on the rise.
The North-West London United Synagogue congregation is currently welcoming 130 people to its Shabbat services, compared to around 90 in spring 2019.
Young in all senses — MHE was founded in 2016 and many of its 280 adult members are newly marrieds in their 20s and 30s with young children — another sign of its development will be Sunday’s celebration of a new Sefer Torah.
Members raised more than £25,000 to fund the scroll, an ark and bimah.
Co-chair Chloe Prager said the community’s growth had been achieved through word of mouth, also attributing some of its success to a strong focus on volunteering.
A further selling point was that a large percentage of members “have a role of some form within the community”, explained Ms Prager, who is 29 and works as a critical care pharmacist.
And the congregation was “tech savvy”, with communications on WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook.
Although not far from the large Mill Hill United Synagogue, MHE doesn’t see itself in competition with other congregations.
“A lot of our members are new to the area,” said co-chair James Neidle, 30, who works as a management consultant.
“It’s an area of Jewish growth and it’s why I suppose our community has grown with it.”
Since mid-2018, the shul had benefited from the “fantastic” part-time services of rabbinic couple Bentzi and Michal Mann. Mr Neidle said that MHE would “definitely look for more time from the rabbi” going forward with membership expected to continue to increase.
Services are currently held at a Barnet Council youth centre with events held in other locations. Mr Neidle said it was MHE’s “long-term ambition that we will have our own permanent building and we are working with partners to make this a reality. But at the moment we do not have a timescale.”
He added that “as a vibrant, thriving and modern Orthodox community that has already achieved so much over a short space of time, we believe we have the potential to be the future of modern Orthodoxy in the UK.”