AGM, discussions

We had our AGM (annual general meeting) a few weeks ago. As had been the case for the past few years, much of the discussion was about the building, which is not in good shape. We raised 17K a few years ago and used this to fix many problems (I suspect this was the first repair work done for decades on the building), but new problems continue to surface. We need money (on the order of 50K), we also need people to put in substantial amounts of time (for fundraising, organising repairs, arranging things, etc). It was a bit depressing, to be honest, but hopefully things will work out

Shabbat dinners are back

We finally have a working cooker again, so we had a shabbat dinner at the end of October. An excellent turnout (especially of students), and a good omen for the future. Last weekend a visitor asked if we could provide a minyan for a yahrzeit; we managed this for the Friday night service, but didn't quite make it for Saturday morning (9 men instead of 10). It definitely seems easier to get a minyan for a Friday night service (perhaps because it is shorter)? Today Rabbi Rose visited from Edinburgh, and led a shiur to discuss Judges 19-21. Which I found very interesting as I don't know much about the Tanakh outwith the Torah

Death of a caretaker

I am sorry to report that on 21 Sept, our caretaker, Doug Marshall, passed away. Doug was 86 years old, and had been our caretaker for about 30 years (I don't know the exact time, different people tell me different things). During this time he helped our community in numerous ways, far too many to list here. Doug is survived by his wife Gladys, who will continue (at least for the moment) as a shul caretaker.

Doors Open Day, Rosh Hashanah

Summer is over, as always it is a very quiet time for our community. Unfortunately we are having problems with the cooker in our kitchen, which means we can't have a communal dinner, but hopefully this will get resolved soon.

On Sunday, 13 Sept, we opened the shul to the public as part of Doors Open Day; this is the second time we've done this. We had 150 visitors (who gave us over 100 pounds in donations), which was really nice, and shows that there are plenty of people in Aberdeen who are interested in the Jewish community. Many thanks to Debbie and Mark for organising this!

Rosh Hashanah services started on Friday night (18 Sep). Rabbi Eli Kohn once again agreed to come up from London to lead our High Holiday services, which was much appreciated! We had 30 people on Friday night and over 40 on Saturday morning, which is a very good turnout for the Aberdeen Hebrew Community. One of our members, Sarah, organised children's events on Saturday morning during the service, and we had around 15 children there, which was wonderful; its nice to see so many children in the shul!

Summer is here, looking for tenants

Summer is here, which is a very quiet time for the Aberdeen Hebrew Congregation, as many of our student members go home for the summer, and families of course go on holiday during the school holiday period. So little happens in the community in June, July, and August.

Having said that, though, we are looking for a new tenant for the shul flat (ideally someone who has a connection to the Jewish community). We also are going to need to do work on the electricity in our building, and would welcome advice and/or donations about this. For more information (about either), just email info@aberdeenhebrew.org.uk

student dinner, visitor from the past

Apologies for the silence, I was away during Pesach visiting family (our community consists mostly of incomers, and many people visit family during Pesach). We had a communal sedar for those people who stayed in Aberdeen. this attracted about 15 people.

The Aberdeen University Jewish Student Society organised a shabbat dinner last Friday. This got a really nice crowd, over 30 people in all, including some visitors from Edinburgh and St Andrews. We easily made a minyan (at least 15 men), and enjoyed a nice meal afterwards, most of which was provided by the students! Many thanks to Aberdeen JSoc!

Today Rabbi Rose visited from Aberdeen. We were pleasantly surprised when a visitor in his 60s wandered in, who turned out to be someone who was a teenager in Aberdeen in the 1950s! Apparently the shul looks just the same as back then, including mostly the same furniture. Its really nice to have a visitor like this, as most of us are incomers we don't have a strong sense of the history of the community. Afterwards Rabbi Rose led a shiur, which discussed Lag B'Omer and the fact that the rabbis decided that military might was a bad idea after the Bar Kochba revolt in 132CE

We're growing!

We had a shabbat dinner last night. About 20 people came, including 5 primary-school age children, who get things lively! One piece of good news is that our official membership is up to 24 families and individuals, which probably corresponds to 50-60 people including children. This may not sound like much, but 5 years ago we had a membership of 12, indeed we haven't had a membership of 24 since the 1960s. Our events are open to all Jews in the area, regardless of whether they are official members or not, but we do appreciate it when people show their support by becoming members

Purim at the University

Yesterday we had our Megillah reading and Purim party. We had the Megillah reading at the University of Aberdeen (as we have for the past few years), using an old megillah (possibly dating back to the 15th century, although this is uncertain) from one of the University's special collections. Rabbi Rose from Edinburgh led the reading, and about 50 people attended, including 11 (pre-Bar Mitzvah) children. The children (all in costume) of course were the centre of attention as they shouted down an mention of Haman! Afterwards we had a party and food at the shul.

The university has a nice press release about this, see
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/mediareleases/release.php?id=1728
Our local newspaper (Press and Journal) also had a story about this.

Bad weather doesn't stop dinner, service

The weather over the last few days has been awful, with an arctic blast of snow and cold. But this didn't stop the Aberdeen Hebrew Congregation from having a Friday night service, shabbat dinner, and Shabbat morning service. I couldn't come to the dinner, because my son was stranded at his school because of school transport problems, but the dinner went ahead. It was sponsored by the student Jewish Society at Aberdeen University, who provided excellent food. Zion, who is no longer a student but still involved in JSoc activities, read the kiddush beautifully, and there was lots of singing afterwards.

On Saturday we had a Shabbat morning service, which we usually do on the first shabbat of every month. This attracted about a dozen people (numbers probably down a bit because of the snow). Continuing the musical theme, Sarah led us to much more singing than we usually do in our services, which I thought was a very nice idea.

Visit by Rabbi Rose: be fruitful or save the planet?

On Tuesday Rabbi Rose from Edinburgh visited us. We do not have our own rabbi, so Rabbi Rose visits us every month or two to discuss practical issues and then lead a shiur to discuss a Jewish topic. On this session we had about ten people (including the rabbi), and the shiur was about the contrast between the injunction to "be fruitful and multiply" and the need to look after the planet. From a Jewish perspective, should we have large families ("multiply") or small families (minimise environmental damage due to over-population)? We didn't reach any firm conclusions, but the discussion was interesting and enjoyed by all!

Committe meeting: money, part-time rabbi?

We had a meeting of the shul committee today. As usual, much discussion about money. Our building was purchased in 1945 and has been poorly maintained over the years, and many problems are now surfacing. We spent a fortune (by our standards) a few years ago fixing the gas, now it looks like we are going to have to spend another 10K or so fixing the electricity, which is a lot of money for a small community like ours. Depressing... donations are very welcome!

On a more positive note, there was an interesting discussion of trying to attract a PhD student to Aberdeen Uni, who would also serve as a part-time rabbi for our community, in return for us providing free accomodation in one of the shul flats. A lot of details are unclear and need to be discussed, but it certainly would be nice to have someone like this around!

Friday night dinner: We get a minyan!

We had a Friday night dinner on 16 Jan. I unfortunately wasn't able to make it, but it was a big success, in particular we got a minyan (10 males aged 13+) for the Friday night service before the dinner. Its very rare for us to have a minyan outwith holidays or other major special occassions, so this was a very nice surprise!

First shabbat of 2009

We had our first shabbat morning service of the year today. Turnout was very small, only 6 people. Usually we get 10-15 people, but many of our members are away on holiday, I also expect some people are getting up too late (because of the holidays) to make a 10AM service. As usual, the service was about 30 min long. A full Orthodox shabbat morning service would take 2 hours, but this requires a minyan, and generally speaking we only get a minyan (10 males aged 13 or more) during holidays and special events. When we don't have a minyan (ie, when its not a special event or holiday), we do a short 30 min service.

Afterwards we had a kiddush and a snack upstairs. The big news is that the current tenants of our flat (we rent out the top floor of our building to get some income) will probably move out soon, so we will need to find new tenants. If anyone is interested in renting a small 2-bedroom flat near Aberdeen City Centre, let me know!

We will have a communal shabbat dinner on Friday, 16 Jan, starting with the 6PM Friday night service. All welcome! Please bring a food contribution if you can, but people who cannot contribute food are also very welcome