Today's most viewed
| OAKHAVEN FACELIFT |  | | | BIRDIES GALORE | | | | COMBAT HAY FEVER | | | | TOP AWARDS | | |
|
|
|
Jewish community celebrates 60 years
 |
| STABILITY: Bournemouth's new rabbi, Adrian Jesner, talks to Echo reporter Stephen Bailey. Picture: Corin Messer. ID: 6660036. |
THE Jewish community in Bournemouth will come together on Wednesday night to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the creation of their homeland.
The Israel 60 event at the Opera House in Boscombe will feature Israeli-born singer, Mor Karbasi, who is in the middle of a UK tour, and the Bournemouth Ladies Israeli Dancers.
One VIP guest will be Mayor of Bournemouth, Cllr Anne Filer, herself a Jew. The town is twinned with Netanya, a seaside resort north of Tel Aviv.
Cllr Filer said: "It's very exciting, especially as Bournemouth is twinned with Netanya and we have strong links with Netanya."
The town's outgoing first citizen has led several trips to Israel, most recently in March this year.
She added: "It's an occasion for much celebration because of Bournemouth's links with Netanya and with the struggles Israel has had to survive this long.
"It means a lot to Jewish people who live in this country."
Wednesday's celebrations will be the focus for the Wessex region and are being organised by the Bournemouth Jewish Representative Council and, as well as the entertainment, will include a Kosher buffet supper.
Organiser, Lawrence Williams, said: "It's showing solidarity with Israel, which is important, and it's an extremely big event. Bournemouth last celebrated in this style 10 years ago for the 50th anniversary at the BIC.
"It's a cross-community event, so the whole Jewish community is involved, and about 30 Israelis are going to be there as well. There are quite a lot living in Bournemouth."
The party tonight, which starts at 8pm, is set to be one of the largest staged by the Jewish community in Bournemouth and is a complete sell-out, with more than 400 people attending.
THE long wait for a rabbi at Bournemouth's biggest synagogue is over.
After three years, Scotsman and football fan Adrian Jesner is giving the congregation some stability.
He was invited here 11 weeks ago after four-and-a-half years in Reading.
"Who wouldn't want to come to Bournemouth?" said the 56-year-old. "It's a wonderful, warm welcoming community."
There are more than 1,000 members of Bournemouth Hebrew Congregation and the average synagogue attendance is more than 200.
Rabbi Jesner is a Glasgow man and a big Rangers fan and he hopes to get to their UEFA cup final in Manchester, though work commitments will take priority.
He added with mirth: "Bournemouth haven't stopped winning since I arrived!"
Bournemouth's Jewish community is up to 3,500-strong.
The synagogue is more than 100 years old and Bournemouth was the country's top Jewish holiday resort in the 1950s and 1960s, with eight specialist hotels.
Bournemouth also has the Reform Synagogue under Rabbi Neil Amswych with a membership of more than 700.
Rabbis Jesner's wife Pamela, 56, has organised a two-day trip to Auschwitz at the start of June. Her grandfather lost half a dozen relatives in the holocaust. "We just both feel very lucky that our families were in Britain," she said.
The congregation wants to carry on building links with other faiths and Rabbi Jesner takes part in the three faiths forum which brings together Jews, Muslims and Christians.
Rabbi Jenser has two children from previous marriages, Elie 29, a derivative trader, and Lillian 27, a lawyer. Pamela has Danny 25, who is just doing his Masters in management.
He is very interested in education, in bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs and the youth club. He said: "Children are the future. You must have a future."
7:00pm Tuesday 6th May 2008
Print 
Email this
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
