Parents furious as synagogue accused of ‘sacrificing children’s needs’ to cut costs
Parents accuse New North London Synagogue of hiding preschool closure to protect finances, leaving families scrambling for alternatives
Parents at New North London Synagogue have accused its leadership of prioritising financial savings over the wellbeing of children after learning that its decision to close the synagogue’s preschool was kept secret for more than three months.
Gan Alon Preschool and Forest School will shut its doors this summer. But families say NNLS decided to close it in early December and deliberately delayed informing parents until mid-March, after new children had already enrolled for the spring term.
Among those affected are children with special educational needs and a recent immigrant from Israel. Parents say they are now scrambling to find alternative places at short notice and have accused the shul of acting to protect its income.
In a statement to Jewish News, NNLS said: “It was a difficult and painful decision to close Gan Alon Preschool at the end of this academic year.” The synagogue added that it was made “after extensive research and careful deliberation”, including “surveys of young families at NNLS and consultation with educational specialists”.
NNLS said the closure was “rooted in significant changes in the early years sector”, with families “increasingly needing to opt for full-day, wraparound care that NNLS does not have the facilities to provide”. It added: “We strongly refute any suggestions that we have not explored every option to keep Gan Alon open, or that NNLS has behaved in any way that lacks propriety or transparency.”
Parents, however, argue that had they been told earlier, they could have recruited new families or raised funds to keep Gan Alon running for another year.
“Gan Alon only needed four extra children on its roll next year to break even and stay open,” they said. “If shul had told us earlier on that there was a risk of closure, we could have encouraged families we knew were planning to register in the summer term to do so sooner.”
“Alternatively, if only a handful of places stood between Gan Alon and viability for another year, we could have split the shortfall between us. Gan Alon is significantly cheaper than other local shul preschools, so asking us to make up this shortfall wouldn’t have been any more expensive than moving to another preschool, which is precisely what NNLS is asking us to do now.”
A list of detailed questions submitted to NNLS, including whether it conducted equality impact assessments or explored other funding options, remains unanswered.
“All we needed was for NNLS leadership to communicate with us openly and honestly,” the families said. “But telling the parents that Gan Alon was under risk of closure would have meant potentially losing some of this year’s parents, and therefore a source of income.”
“At every opportunity, given the choice between doing the right thing by its youngest members and sacrificing them in order to save money, NNLS leadership chose to follow the money.”
The synagogue made headlines last year after reportedly spending £75,000 on legal advice following community backlash over language used by one of its rabbis when speaking about Israeli political leaders. Parents affected by the Gan Alon closure say this has raised further questions about the shul’s financial priorities.
“It’s not for us to argue whether or not closing Gan Alon is necessary in the long term,” they said. “Though it is noteworthy that, wherever there was an opportunity to publicise the preschool or pursue a coherent marketing strategy, the shul was always very quick to miss it.”
“However, we do believe that having made a commitment to our children, accepting them into the preschool when, in some cases, the shul leadership already knew that Gan Alon was going to close, the least NNLS could have done was to announce the closure for July 2026.”
“By choosing to close this July, instead, the NNLS leadership has shown very clearly that its priorities lie elsewhere. Our children are nothing but collateral damage in a cost-cutting exercise.”
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