MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF RABBI

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My brothers and I grew up in Finchley. We went to non-Jewish schools because in those days there was no Jewish school in Finchley to go to. That must now change.

Schools are the beating pulse of Jewish life. Other civilizations prided themselves on their castles and cathedrals. We cared less about buildings than about builders: Call them not (said the sages) ‘your children’ but ‘your builders’. Universal education – which Jews created eighteen centuries before Britain – was the first priority of any Jewish community. In the darkest days of persecution in Spain, Jews built schools. When the Thirty Years War that devastated Europe between 1618 and 1648 came to an end, the first thing Jews did was to reconstruct the educational system. When R. Samson Raphael Hirsch was appointed Rabbi in Frankfurt, his community wanted to build a new shul. First, he said, build a Jewish school. Only then may you build a shul.

We need a Jewish school in Finchley. It should now become the community’s most important and urgent task. From it you will see blessings for generations to come. I wish you success; I pledge you my full and active support.

May this be your supreme mitzvah in the coming year, for by it you will write your children into the Book of Jewish life. May Hashem bless you with success,

With warmest good wishes for a ketivah ve-chatimah tovah,

Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks
July 2007/Av 5767