South coast J-Socs join forces for epic Dinner and Sleepover

Saul GAUNT, President of Brighton and Sussex Jewish Society, (centre red t-shirt), reports from Brighton.

Last weekend, Brighton and Sussex Jewish Society hosted the South Coast Inter-J-Soc Friday Night Dinner and Sleepover.

With over 30 Jewish students from the south coast and surrounding areas the weekend was a great success. People began arriving on Friday around 4 o’clock – the food was ready and the table was set. We began the evening by getting to know everyone, where everyone had come from and their comparisons of Jewish life across the south coast.

I called everyone up for dinner: mushroom volauvents, chicken soup, schnitzels and then crumble. The food went down a treat! Everyone seemed to be having a great time and the atmosphere around the room was fantastic.

During dinner we were joined by ambassadors from the airline El-Al. They sat with us telling us stories about their times flying, really adding to the atmosphere of the evening. After dinner, the El-Al ambassadors gave a presentation about some different aspects of Israel, ranging from the music and clubs of Tel Aviv, to the diverse culture of Haifa.

We then played games, drank a few beers, and eventually people started going to bed!

In the morning, we started with croissants and hot drinks, some of us decided this would be the perfect time for a walk on the beach and along the pier, giving us more time to get to know our neighbouring Jewish Societies and, on returning, we were given a speech by Maurice Podro – one of the founding members of the original CST, telling the story of his involvement in preventing post-war anti-Semitism.

Then it was lunch-time and cold meats, bagels and lots of salad followed. After lunch our chaplain, Rabbi Joe Kaye, gave a class called “In or Out” discussing how to have a successful relationship by becoming a better person.

Havdalah was very moving and, as it brought the weekend to a close, we said our goodbyes and promised that we would have to do this again.

I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend, the months of planning were well worth it and I’d really like to turn this into an annual event!

I would like to thank all the students for making the journey and coming to Brighton to join us for Shabbat. I would also like to thank Roxy Kaye from the Union of Jewish Students for her help with the event, Matt Keston from Masa UK for organising the speakers and Rabbi Joe for his class. [divider]

Saul Gaunt is the  President of Brighton and Sussex Jewish Society.  Student leaders like Saul help to facilitate activities to suit all members, from religiously-themed lunch and learns to Friday Night Dinners, guest speakers from all denominations, debates, parties, sports events and much, much more.

Email – jsoc@ussu.sussex.ac.uk

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/groups/2219279445/

Website – https://www.sussexstudent.com/jsoc

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