Islington Chabad to celebrate new scroll with street parade
A klezmer band, singer and torchbearers will be part of a ceremony on Upper Street this Sunday
The first inauguration of a Torah in Islington in many decades will take place this Sunday, with the community’s rabbi, Mendy Korer, having performed solo comedy shows and run ultramarathons to boost fundraising efforts for the scroll.
Once the final letters are completed in a ceremony at the Town Hall in Upper Street, a singer and a klezmer band will help to parade it to its new home at the Chabad synagogue, near Islington Green.
The new Torah was commissioned in memory of Julian Young, a local criminal solicitor who died from leukaemia in August 2021. Community efforts began the following year, led by Judy Ramjeet, to raise the funds needed to buy its first scroll. She told Jewish News: “Loads of miracles kept happening as we were fundraising. Every time there was an obstacle a door would open.”
To support the fundraising efforts, Rabbi Korer embarked on two solo stand-up shows in Soho in February – titled A Rabbi Walked into a Bar – hosted other comedians, including Milton Jones, for comedy performances in Highgate, and even ran several ultra-marathons.
The rabbi told Jewish News he hoped the event will be the start of something brilliant for the community. His ambition is that the scroll will one day be in a building the community can permanently call its own, but for now it will be housed in the community’s rented space, where Shabbat, festival services and other events are held.
As for Sunday’s celebration, Rabbi Korer is looking forward to welcoming people of all faiths and none to take part, and believes that Jews from across London will join the celebration, which will begin at 11am at Islington Town Hall. A number of rabbis are expected to attend, as well as Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies, as the procession honouring the scroll makes its way to the community’s current site, near the Angel.
Islington’s Jewish community used to be one of the largest in London but dwindled as the population moved to other areas. At the last national census, however, 2,000 people in the borough identified as Jewish.
Details of Sunday’s event can be found here.
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