Dear Friends,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since you received my email last Wednesday I have been arguing with the Council about the failed weekly collection of my brown food-waste bin. Every day on phoning the Council Complaints Section, we were given answers that varied from \u201cit will be collected tomorrow\u201d to \u201cyou didn\u2019t leave it in the right place\u201d (no, the place hasn\u2019t moved from where you have picked it up for the last few years) to \u201cyou have rung too early in the day for us to do anything\u201d. On Monday we were told that we would have to wait for the usual collection day this week, which is Thursday, and it definitely wouldn\u2019t be collected before then. This, of course, meant it was collected yesterday, Tuesday!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I cannot begin to describe the sense of powerlessness that this brought on and frustration with the system that wouldn\u2019t do anything to help me. All this even though I know it is only a bin and in the scheme of things not at all important. However, the experience has made me want to reach out to those of you in our congregation who were due to take GCSE and A levels this year and who are now caught up in the Grades debacle. You must be feeling so many emotions and I just want you to know that as a community we are proud of everything that you achieve. I (we) hope that when this is over you have been given the grades that you deserve and that you can move on to whatever you want to do next. As you move on to new things, stay in touch with us, send us your news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I hope that you have all received the booking information for the High Holydays that Lee sent out and that you are replying to Adam if you want to attend. I write with some good news. The Government has relaxed the restrictions on Choirs and so from Shabbat 5 September we will bring back a quartet for the Shabbat morning services. There will still be no choir on Friday evening. We have two Bnei Mitzvah Services on 5 and 12 September, so this is really good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We will also be able to have a live service with the choir and Cantor Heller on Selichot. In order to achieve this and to make it a good experience to watch on BelsizeLIVE, they will be on the Bimah with screens in front of them. To comply with the government guidelines on social distancing, we will not be able to open the Synagogue to the community that evening. Please plan to watch on BelsizeLIVE and don\u2019t forget that before the service Rabbi Altshuler will be holding a Zoom Shiur. Please look out for further publicity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we also plan to have the choir present, although it will be smaller than usual, due to the need for social distancing. As I said, this is good news.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may be interested to know that Friday 14 August was exactly 75 years since \u201cThe Boys\u201d arrived in Windermere from the Camps. Individuals from our congregation were among them, namely Koppel Kendall, David Herman and Jan Goldberger. As well as Victor Greenberg \u2013 father of our member Alan Greenberg, and Zigi Shipper both of whom have spoken at events at the Synagogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n