by Lucy, Noam Gap Year Kfar Vradim Participant

After returning from Israel I honestly did very little with my time other then pop down to the pub, sleep, watch tv and see friends. However I did do one productive thing this summer: I was a madricha on Noam Summer Camp!! Being on camp is always my favourite time of year but this year was particularly amazing. To begin with we were joined by a fantastic group of Israeli chanichim. Not only were they fun and interesting and involved and a pleasure to lead but I don't think they'll ever understand the monumental impact they've had on 76 English chanichim. These chanichim were taught about Israel from people their age and most importantly, I personally I think, they were inspired to go to Israel next year. They were inspired to see everything the delegation were talking about for themselves as well as to be able to see their new friends again. For this spark of inspiration I, and Noam as a whole, are so thankful to the delegation and the minyan hamishpati in Kfar Vradim in a way you can't imagine.

But it doesn't end there, you've done so much more. Thanks to your unbelievably generous donation I was able to lay teffilin and wear my tallit on camp everyday. As I thought may happen, chanichim who knew me from last year continually asked me something along the lines of "OMG did you like go to Israel and now like come and back and you're all religious and stuff. I mean like do you even want to be on Noam anymore I thought like only orthodox religious like people wore those things?!". Surprisingly I was thankful for these questions as it gave me the perfect opportunity to be able to explain all about tallit an teffilin, egalitarianism in Masorti, Kfar Vradim and the khila and drachim as a whole. My tallit and teffilin opened the door to being able to educate about religion, Masorti and Israel and hopefully inspire more chanichim to start to think about their own connection to judaism, Israel and Noam.  

As with drachim, camp also had to end, but that certainly doesn't mean my involvement in masorti and noam has. Almost a year to the date that my journey in Israel started something amazing happened here. Ten days ago i moved up to Leeds to start university. My first Friday night Natalie and I wondered around to find somewhere for Shabbat. We found the Hillel House run by the Jewish society on campus (JSoc). Leeds Jsoc is one of the biggest in the UK but this week there was only a small group of us as term hadn't officially started yet, and a very small minority of us were women. Decked out in our best 'Modern Orthodox frum' costumes and trying to fit in we followed the crowd into Kabbalat Shabbat services. I was suddenly taken aback when my view of the main service was obscured by a delicate white lace haze - the mechtzah. I'm used to orthodox beit knessetim but only sitting in balconies not behind mechitzot. In fact, it was like nothing I had experienced before. Although not completely cut off from the service and not obviously oppressed in an 1800s sort of way I just couldn't shake this uneasy feeling. My outfit really did feel like a costume and my feelings towards the mechitzah confirmed my feelings of: there must be an egalitarian minyan right? Because I can't do this every week, this isn't me. I didn't feel the love and fun and joy I normally felt in masorti services - I felt an imposter. This feeling was only highlighted to everyone else when my phone - sneakily kept in my bra started to ring out in the middle of the Amidah with Gyptian's 'Hold Yuh' (youtube if you haven't heard it before - great song!!) playing out for everyone to hear.  Never being one to sit back quietly I tried to subtly ask the man I was sitting next to at dinner about an egal min, it turned out he was in fact the president of JSoc and was very excited to hear about someone from a masorti background wanting to get involved, before I could think through what I was saying I had agreed to see what I could do.
 
Wednesday night rolled around and I met with a boy (Leo Wax) who did RSY (Reform Synagogue Youth) Schnat and was very interested to help. We sat down in the student (use your own imagination) kitchen and cleared a small place to sit and write and plan. We discussed what masorti was and how we 'did' Shabbat and vice versa for reform. We sat with a siddur and wrote down what we wanted to do and which tunes. We discussed the use of English in a service- something reform in England often do- and came to a happy medium. A quick email to a friend on the JSoc committee and the room, time, Shabbat candles and Kiddush cup and wine was booked for the first ever Leeds JSoc egalitarian minyan.

With the help of one more RSY-er and a LJY(Liberal Jewish Youth)er we confirmed all tunes, prayers passages in Hebrew/English extra readings and most importantly the words that would be said in the Amidah and the Aleinu - for example: do we include the patriarchs. We also had discussions on difference in customs with kaddish, hatzi kaddish and mourners kaddish. As you can imagine this wasn't a quick, light hearted discussion but it was interesting and important. After a few hours the official plan was born and a leaflet produced with the order of the service, extra material, discussion topics and quotes.

After a ritual pre- pint at the Faversham across the road we headed over to Hillel house to set up and hope for a minyan.  We made it and then some, with 17 of us in a circle armed with our siddurs and homemade discussion sheets we started with candle lighting followed by L'chad Dodi. With the exceptions of only a few hiccups and a stumble or two over which tune to sing, we had an amazing service with lots of singing and fun and Mexican waves and general feeling of belonging and community. It was a massive success and we cant wait for this to expand and be a stable part of Leeds JSoc every Shabbat. Were hoping to have themed nights, a committee and pot luck dinners together ( any more suggestions feel free to email….).

I wanted to write and say thank you because without my time in Kfar Vradim I would never have been shown how amazing community is, without going to Kabbalat Shabbat there's no way I could have lead this service and there isn't a hope in hell I would have been inspired by my masorti judaism to help put this together and make history in the Leeds JSoc community.

Thank you so much, I hope you can see what an amazing impact you're having all over the world.

Will keep you updated,

Lots of love and wishing everyone health and happiness for the new year,

Shona Tova,

Lucy.