Most synagogues would be overjoyed to have one musical or literary genius in their congregation. But Finchley Reform has three — and they are all still in their teens.
In the space of a few weeks, Jaren Ziegler, Dora Fidler and Isaac Reuben, all 17, have been shortlisted for national writing and music awards.
Their rabbi, Miriam Berger, is “incredibly proud of them all”, but admits that it wasn’t until Jaren’s barmitzvah that she realised he had a prodigious musical talent.
“His parents suggested it would be nice if he could play his viola during the service, and I said yes, of course,” she told the JC.
“But privately I wasn’t expecting anything much. I was very much that person who was thinking: oh, here are parents who think their child is amazing.
“How wrong I was. His playing was extraordinary. Every Shabbat we listen to the music he played that morning, but with him we were transported back to the shtetls of Eastern Europe.”
Last week, Jaren did something else extraordinary. He won the Strings Final of the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year competition. “It was my ambition to just get on the programme,” he says. “So this feels amazing.”
Dora and Isaac also feel pretty good right now. Last month, Dora was shortlisted for the BBC’s Young Writers’ Award with Cambridge University for her short story The Poltergeist.
And over the summer, Isaac’s play Last Resort made it on to a shortlist of eight from 427 entries to New Views, the National Theatre’s playwriting competition for students aged 14 to 19.
“My play looks at the extreme lengths people will go for political ends,” says JCoSS pupil Isaac, who is hoping to read politics at university next year.
“The protagonist is so worried about her carbon footprint, she attempts suicide at a climate-change protest. Political thought is a key theme in my writing and I’m interested in the power theatre has to challenge it.”
Dora’s short story about a ghost (www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0d27k84), was born of a series of highly debilitating migraines that still plague her, but which were particularly acute earlier this year.
“There was a period when I missed around a week of school every month because of my migraines,” the Mill Hill County High pupil told the JC.
“As well as being in a lot of pain, I was stuck in my bedroom all day and bored. So to entertain and distract myself, I started listening to ghost story podcasts. I love magic realism.”
However, The Poltergeist was the first time the teenager, who cites American authors Donna Tartt and Carmen Maria Machado as particular literary influences, tried her own hand at the genre.
“I was so bored, the normal apprehension I feel around writing just vanished. When I finished the piece, I showed it to my mum who said I should enter it for a writing competition.
“I found this BBC one online, edited my story down from 2,000 words to 1,000 and sent it off, thinking that’d be the last I heard of it.” But on 19 July, the day Britain recorded its hottest-ever Tuesday, Dora did hear back.
“I had to keep my shortlist news secret for the whole of the summer holidays and the first few weeks of the autumn term.
“I’m bad at keeping secrets, so I’m pleased I managed to keep quiet about this one.
“I didn’t win the competition last week, and didn’t expect to, but being shortlisted has been a huge boost. It has pushed me towards considering a career in writing,” says Dora, who is applying to read English and creative writing at East Anglia University.
For now though, these teens are happy to continue working at Finchley Reform Synagogue, where Dora teaches drama to younger members and where Isaac is employed by the cheder.
“The community here is dynamic, very youth-orientated and is absolutely my gateway to Judaism,” says Isaac. “When I was 12, I used to come to Friday night services on my own.”
A year later, after his barmitzvah, he prepared another youngster for the ceremony. As did Dora.
“Our bar and batmitzvah journey is quite different from other synagogues’,” says Rabbi Berger who believes that if there an explanation for the shul’s hat-trick triumph, its attitude towards its young members is likely part of it.
“Kids are taught by kids here. It creates a real understanding that the system can’t function if you only take from it and don’t give back. They know they were only able to learn for their bar or batmitzvah because another teenager saw it as their responsibility.”
It is also a synagogue, says the rabbi, that “makes space for people, which says find a way to express yourself. We don’t say this is how we’ve always done it, this is how it must be done.
“Many synagogues try to make everything equal between kids. We don’t. If you want to pick up a viola at your barmitzvah, or make a connection between your love of football and your Torah portion, both are equally fine by us. We give kids their own platform, their own opportunity to shine.”
Jaren, who has already recorded at Abbey Road Studios and who plans to become a professional musician, certainly feels this synagogue and the wider Jewish world have played a part in his success.
“We are encouraged to love music. We’re brought up with so many inspiring tunes.
“It’s got to be a factor,” he says.
