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In front of the Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks, the Mayor and otherdignitaries, we paraded the new scrolls (with bagpipeaccompaniment!) into our Shul. What an amazing day it wasfor the Congregation. As I walked in the procession holdingthe hands of Naftali and Shua, two of my grandsons, I wasfilled with an overwhelming sense of pride of what SWHCachieved, from top to bottom.My last is a simple thing really. It is coming to Shul on aShabbat or Festival. I have tried to ensure that there is afriendly family atmosphere. Coming to Shul, whether you arefrum or not, should be a pleasurable experience. With theexcellent input of the Rabbi and the two wardens, GeoffreyPepper and Stanley Robinson, I have always felt a warmthamongst you, the Congregants. Meandering round the Shul,as is my want, I have enjoyed your friendship, especially soafter the fire at my office last May and during my recentillness. For your comradeship I will be forever grateful.Is that all, you say? No, it is not. There are in fact many moreevents I would like to include but I do not want to bore you.And if I make this article too long the Editor will exercise herprerogative to “edit”.It only remains for Louise and I to wish Rabbi and Annette Bar,Yitzchak and Miriam, our family and friends and the wholeCongregation a very happy and Kosher Pesach.May the Congregation go from strength to strength.President’s ReportSadly, this is my final report to you asPresident. As most of you know, I willbe standing down at the AGM on20th May 2012. This is not a decisiontaken a short while ago but one Louiseand I made in 2006, before puttingmy name forward as a candidate. Weboth thought that (if re-elected in 2009)President would be about right. After 2012, ittwo terms as Presidenwould be best for SWHC if someone else took over thereins. The six years have naturally flown by! I will deliver a fullreport in the booklet to be circulated for the AGM but I wouldlike to reflect here on some personal moments. So, pleasepermit me some indulgence on the following highlights whichare in no particular order.Meetings have been the bane of my life! But there is alwaysone I actually look forward to. That is the editorial sessions ofthis magazine (the CV). The committee, consisting of RivaShaw, Michael Franks, Pamela Freedman and myself meet atthe home of our esteemed Editor, Rochelle O’Brart. Rochelleindulges us with all sorts of treats and refreshments. It isusually difficult to keep to a topic because we spend toomuch time mootling, that is nattering. We have fun but wealways get the decisions made (how, I don’t know!). Thesuccess of the CV is, without doubt, reflected in the relaxedway that it is managed.In 2007, my friend Otto Deutsch, reminded me that inNovember 2008 would be the 70th anniversary ofKristallnacht, the infamous night in Germany when the Nazismade it abundantly clear what lay in store for us Jews. Howcould we mark this important date? I asked Barbara Newmanfor some ideas and, before I could draw breath, Barbara hadorganised a concert in our Shul which turned out to be one ofthe most remarkable events for many a year. It was held afterShabbos on 15th November 2008. Last December I bumpedinto Rabbi Lionel Rosenfeld who led the service with Cantor,Johnny Turgel, and accompanied by the Shabbaton Choir.Rabbi Rosenfeld still recalls that evening with great joy at itssuccess. Rabbis Bar and Shochet delivered excellent key notespeeches that reflected the serious aspect of the evening. Butthe Mayor, both our local MP’s and the many other dignitariespresent told me how they felt the underlying warmth as theevening became a celebration that the Nazis did not succeedwith their evil intentions.Rabbi and Annette Bar have made an indelible mark on ourCongregation. The Rabbi galvanised us into raising moneyto acquire two brand new Sifrei Torah. There was some whothought that such an acquisition was a luxury. But the manyof you who attended the Hachnasat Sefer Torah on 16th May2010 know that misses the point.Alan GershlickSouthend & WestcliffHebrew CongregationAnnual General Meetingwill take place onSunday 20th May 2012in the SynagogueVoting will take place from9.45am closing at 10.30amMeeting commences at 10.30amE. BEDINI & SONSDĞŵŽƌŝĂů DĂƐŽŶƐ KĨ ŝƐƟŶĐƟŽŶϱϬ LJĞĂƌƐ ŽĨ ƐĞƌǀŝŶŐ ƚŚĞ tĞƐƚĐůŝīͲŽŶͲƐĞĂ :ĞǁŝƐŚ ŽŵŵƵŶŝƚLJ ŝŶ ƟŵĞ ŽĨ ŶĞĞĚ͘ ƵLJ ĚŝƌĞĐƚ ĨƌŽŵ ƚŚĞ ŵĂŶƵĨĂĐƚƵƌĞƌƐ͘ ĞƐƉŽŬĞ ĚĞƐŝŐŶƐ ĂŶĚ ƌĞŶŽǀĂƟŽŶƐ ƵŶĚĞƌƚĂŬĞŶ͘&ŝƌƐƚ ϭϬϬ ůĞƩĞƌƐ ĨƌĞĞ͘ WŚŽŶĞ ŶŽǁ ĨŽƌ ĨƌĞĞ ĂĚǀŝĐĞ Žƌ Ă ƋƵŽƚĂƟŽŶ͘01702 467944 (24 hours)hŶŝƚ ϳ͕ ZŽƐƐŚŝůů /ŶĚƵƐƚƌŝĂů WĂƌŬ͕ ŽƵƚŚĞŶĚ ŽŶ ĞĂ͕ Ϯ ϱW ;ŶĞĂƌ ƚŽĐŬ ZŽĂĚ ŽƉƉŽƐŝƚĞ &ŽƌŵƵůĂ ϭ ƵƚŽ ĞŶƚƌĞͿSHOWROOM OPEN 10am to 5pm Monday to Friday (Sunday by appointment)If you cannot call in person, we are able to call on you in the comfort of your own home by appointment with no obligation.www.bedinimemorials.co.uk7

Shul Library –Books for youLightinggg up the Costa Blanca in style!The community library is situatedin the Beis Hamedrash. We havean extensive range of bookscovering all aspects of Jewishinterest.We are making progress, albeit very slowly, in re-organisingand cataloguing the books. We have acquired a computerand library software has been installed. We are at thepresent time listing the books and this will then be put onthe website for you to see the comprehensive selection wehave. After that, the database will be completed and we willthen have a library system for the community to borrow thebooks. You will, when all the data is completed, be able torequest books by email or telephone and collect them atsuitable times during the week. It has become very obviousthat the re-organization is taking much longer thananticipated.The last night ofChanukah saw theerection of a Chanukiaat Playa Flamencabeach, southern CostaBlanca, for the first timein at least 500 years.Around 200 people attended and sangria and doughnutswere passed round to all present. The atmosphere waselectric and it was a very emotional and moving evening tobe able to celebrate such a joyful occasion where, up untilrecently, this would not have been allowed.Lawrence and Pamela CollinIn view of this and so as to offer some sort of facility toborrow books at the present time, you can contact me(details below) and I will see if we have a book or booksin the subject or subjects you are interested in.Post Shabbat meeting withConversos of Altea, 7th JanuaryFollowing the edict of expulsion or forced conversion of Jewsfrom Spain in 1492, many continued to practice their religionin secret, over many generations, often still keeping severalrituals and traditions. Since the abrogation of this edict 500years later in 1992, many of these anusim - also called Hijosde los Forzados (Children of the Forced Ones) or Conversoshave started to seek ways to convert to Judaism halachically.On Saturday, 7th January, asmall group of us went back toAltea to again meet up with oneAsuch group at their post Shabbatservice and see how they weregetting on. We joined them forevening prayers and we reciteda commentary (in Spanish andEnglish) on the week’s Torah reading at their community centre,then sat enthralled as several family members took to the stageand became transformed into a small band replete with drums,guitar and vocalists, singing Israeli songs. Somebody then tookthe biggest Shofar off the wallwhich I have ever seen, andblew a short accompaniment fortunately the walls did not falldown! Afterwards we joined theCommunity for a meal downstairs and chatted about theirrplans. Josue, who we met lasttime, is currently going toMadrid with his family as part of a conversion process under theauspices of Masorti. The final part of this process will take placein London and, hopefully, be finished by July. The wholecommunity were very welcoming and pleased to meet us, andhappy to discuss many of the practical issues surrounding theircommunity. Although they meet mostSaturdays after Shabbat, they alsomeet once a month on Rosh Chodeshfor the whole Shabbat, with wholefamilies sleeping over at the premisesand using a rather well maintainedMikveh which would put some UKKequivalents to shame.We are keen to offer as wide a selection as possible and,if there are any books you would like to see in the library,we would be happy to consider obtaining them - so pleasecontact us.The other area we are keen to expand on is visual andaudio. We will be looking at this aspect as a means, wehope, of attracting perhaps more of our younger memberswho are used to advances in technological communications.In a community of our size, there must be many diverseinterests, and it will soon become apparent that we mayneed more books to cover the many interests of ourmembers. If you have books that you no longer require, andwould like to donate them to the library, you can contactSonny Kosky either by e-mail sonnykosky@blueyonder.co.ukor by telephone 01702 589105, and collection can bearranged. Any books donated can, if you so wish, beinscribed on the inside with any suitable wording.To finish the re-organization more speedily, we coulddo with some help in the listing of our books onto thecomputer (very simple data entry). Please let me know ifyou can spare an hour or two to help finish the task.Sonny Kosky2'' -2%6 3 ,17,1* 286( 2/' 5(3 ,56 12 -2% 722 60 // & // &2/,1 6 08(/ 02% It was a most wonderful feeling to be a part of a living historyand in the company of a truly remarkable community.Lawrence Collin8

and check your lettuce, holding it up to the light reallycarefully before hand, leaf by leaf. And then the amount oflettuce to fulfil this rabbit like Mitzvah is approximately thearea of an A4 sheet of paper (20.3cm x 25.4cm). Then dip it inthe delicious Charoset (mixture of apples, nuts, cinnamon andwine). It should ideally be eaten in one go - but if that’s too hard,then you’ve got up to 9 minutes (no need to lean for this bit).The Seder NightChallengeI challenge the community, each andevery one of you, men and women tothe Seder night challenge. There willbe one of the Rebbetzen’s Pesachbrownies for those that succeed!The challenge is not which home isready for Pesach first, who can grate the horseradish withoutcrying or who has the fluffiest kneidlach!The challenge is this: who can eat the right amount ofMatzah, wine and lettuce on 2 nights in a row and canspread the knowledge of these insane sounding quantities tothe most people! (See below - mentioned last year, but in theblur of the 4 cups, here is a reminder). Keep me posted, thebrownies are at stake HaggadahAnd don’t forget, the other big Mitzvah of the night Haggadah, to have in mind to fulfil the obligation to relatethe story of the Exodus from Egypt. The mitzvah is fulfilled byrelating three basic ideas:- The wickedness of the Egyptians and the terrible sufferingsthat they afflicted upon the Jewish people during the longyears of slavery.- The miraculous plagues that G-d brought upon theEgyptians, and the punishments meted out to them measurefor measure.- Thanks and praise to G-d for the wonderful acts of kindnessthat He performed for the Jewish people, redeeming us frombondage and choosing us as His special nation.Finally may I take this opportunity to wish all of you Goodluck in your Seder challenge - you can do it! May you andyour dear families, be blessed with a healthy, happy, spirituallyuplifting, wine drinking, Matzah crunching, lettuce munchingPesach!The challenge begins here!WineIf we weren’t Jewish we would have no problem with thisone! But thank G-d we are, we know about the food, butwhen it comes to wine and at least the quantity of it, weoften struggle, even as a Frenchman!Preferably the four cups should be of red wine (or mixed withgrape juice if wine is too strong). The size of the cup needsto be at least 3.3 fluid oz/97.6 ml and needs to be full. Itis best to drink each cup entirely, but if that’s too hard, inorder to fulfil the mitzvah we need to drink the majority ofthe cup. Ideally downed in 1! (whilst leaning on the left), butif not possible within 9 minutes.Rabbi Binyamin BarMatzahNow it is here that we hit the biggest misconception! It is notenough to nibble on 1 small piece of Matzah throughoutthe night in order to fulfil the mitzvah. In fact did you knowthat this is the only time in the whole torah that there is anobligation to eat something! (shocking when all of Judaismseems to revolve around food!). For Seder night, ShmuraMatzah should be used (that’s the slightly more expensiveone in the shops - can be machine/hand baked, but mustsay Shmura on) and a piece equal to the size of 6 ¼ x 7”/15.9cm x 17.8cm, about the size of one whole Rakusen’sMatzah. It needs to be eaten ideally all in one go, preferablywith speedy munching of less than 2 min, but if not within 9min (whilst leaning on the left).Then there is the sandwich (after the bitter herbs bythemselves), Korech, another bit of Matzah (4”x7”/ 10.2cmx 17.8cm), about 2/3 of a Rakusen’s Matzah which is eatenwith another full helping of bitter herbs (see below).With the meal, however hard it is not to have 3 servings ofkneidlach and Grandma’s chocolate pudding, we must alsoremain with some appetite for the special extra “dessert”,the Afikoman Matzah at the end of the meal! That’s anotherbit of Matzah, the same size as the first, 1 whole machinebaked slice, you can do it!Maror – Bitter HerbsDid you know that having a tiny tear jerking, nose clearingtaste of freshly grated horseradish is not enough! If you wantto fulfil the obligation with ground horseradish, it needs tobe a bit more than 3 level tablespoons of the stuff! Mostpeople can’t do that so use lettuce instead or with a bit ofthe horseradish sprinkled on top. (Did you know that eatinga bug transgresses more rules than eating pork?!) So wash9

The leaders were amazing role models for the Chanichim;teaching us, showing us passion and helping us to create abelief. They taught me personally that everyone has a voice,it is just up to us if we use it! They helped me create apassion for Israel that I did not have before, which made myexperience so wonderful and awe-inspiring.Throughpassion and determination I know that my beliefs andidentity can help me become someone who can stand upand raise awareness that Israel is not all war, that Israel is abeautiful place that consists of people who dearly love theircountry!Israel Trip,Macnoar 201117th JulyMy suitcase was packed. Excitement surrounded me,Facebook statuses were set; we were off to Israel for threeweeks! People described these weeks as “the best time ofyour lives”. I was ready until I weighed my case and foundout I was 26kg instead of 20kg. Unpacking began!The suitcases were on the coach and hugs and kissescommenced! After many photos of us by the coach and withevery combination of friendship group, it was time to boardthe coach! We had our tour t-shirts on and this was thebeginning, we were Macnoar well after the trip aroundLondon to pick everyone up! We had no idea what thethree weeks ahead of us would be like!I am currently sitting in my tour hoodie writing this accountwith these memories that will stay with me forever.Memories that should always be shared.Friendshipsthat will last a lifetime. These thirty one people sharedsomething that taught us and gave us so much. Ourleaders are more like our friends who we can go to foradvice and inspiration but we still give them the respect thatthey deserved for giving us the most incredible tour.18th JulyBen Gurion Airport had thirty one ecstatic 16 year olds in it,we had the legendary tour photo in the airport, where wemet our Israeli tour leaders, Lali Amir and Shachar. Wewere standing there in our hiking gear; yes wewere doing a hike at seven in the morning!One highlight for me was hiking and camping in the desert,with amazing views that you could stare at all day. I feltspecial knowing that when I went back home, no-one wouldhave seen this; how the landscape and different levels ofsand symbolises Israel and the journeys and struggles it hadtaken, but they had taken it as a Nation. Camping in thedesert showed how strong we were as a group by having abonfire and being together, while singing songs and enjoyinga meal we prepared.Macnoar Tour 2011 – truly the best!Verity RosehillEditor’s note: My apologies to Verity – this article should havebeen in the last issue but was misplaced in the wrong file.Jewish Care and theSouthend & Westcliff Hebrew CongregationInvite you to join us at our&RPPXQDO 6LQJ /RQJ 6HGHU RQ WKH )LUVW 1LJKWon Friday 6th April 2012 at 7:30pmMincha & Ma’ariv services commencing at 6:45pm promptAt:Southend & Westcliff Community Centre1 Cobham RoadWestcliff-on-Sea SS0 8EGTickets 20 per person & mustbe booked & paid forby Tuesday 27th MarchFor Tickets and Information please contactGraham on 334655 or email southend@jcare.org,6 ,7 7,0( )25 & 1*("The Yad Vashem was an emotional experience and let usexplore our Jewish identities, to increase our passion forIsrael and to learn what people fought for. To see what ourreligion has gone through, through the ages, made us wantto be strong for our people.Rhapsody was a challenge but expressed what good friendswe had become. Teamwork, participation and persistencewere needed to build the best raft possible! It became acompetition as we were split up into two teams, Lalix andAmice (names of leaders, put together). We painted oursails and ended up covered in paint. We did get some looksfrom Israelis and other tour groups! The sails were up andwe were off for the two hour sail across the Kinneret.Amice’s journey consisted of singing, sleeping and, ofcourse, drinking plenty of water! Amice got to the otherside first. We obviously had the better raft builders! It wasan exhausting day but competition thrived out of us, whichovertook the tiredness./LIH LVQ·W DOZD\V HDV\ DQG DW WLPHV LW FDQ EH GLIÀFXOW WR GHDO ZLWK LW DOO RQ RXU RZQ W D WLPH ZKHQ ZH FDQ IHHO PRVW DORQH WDONLQJ WR D FRXQVHOORU FDQ KHOS XV PDNH VHQVH RI RXU IHHOLQJV DQG WDNH VWHSV WR PDNH SRVLWLYH FKDQJH LQ RXU OLYHV ,I \RX DUH LQWHUHVWHG LQ H[SORULQJ WKLV IXUWKHU SOHDVH FRQWDFW.DW\ *UDQJH 0% &3 RQ NDW\PPJUDQJH#KRWPDLO FR XN, KDYH EHHQ D TXDOLÀHG &RXQVHOORU VLQFH DQG , VSHFLDOLVH LQ ZRUN ZLWK FKLOGUHQ DGGLFWLRQ UHODWLRQVKLS GLIÀFXOWLHV ORVV DQG EHUHDYHPHQW HDWLQJ GLVRUGHUV SRVW QDWDO GHSUHVVLRQ GHSUHVVLRQ DQG DQ[LHW\ ORZ VHOI HVWHHP DQG SDLQ PDQDJHPHQW 10

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ONE MAKES THEDIFFERENCEAT THE MINYANDOES IT REALLY MATTER?Well ACTUALLY IT DOES!EditorialPage 3 of the CV always has theCLOSING DATE for all reports, stories,photos and, of course, adverts, to beincluded in the next magazine. Thereare those of you, very few I can assureyou, who live in (excuse the expression)“cloud cuckoo land” and think oneonly needs a couple of days to put themagazine together before it is printed.Some people think we collect everything together and send it tothe printers for them to sort everything out! Can you imaginethe problems that would create? Well, let me assure you, ourCV is prepared with a great deal of care. Our printers workhand in hand with us to make sure you have a good magazineto read but to do this, time has to be allocated to it and that iswhy we have to adhere to our deadline to make the magazinethe “good read” it has become over the years. So please, takenote of the copy closure date to ensure articles are inserted intime for the forthcoming issue.When we hear of a person whounfortunately is ill, or is about to havean operation, other than wish the person well, we arehelpless to give active assistance, OR ARE WE?When a person loses a loved one, they are helpless to alterthe situation, and thereby carry the feeling of helplessness.However that CANNOT and SHOULD NOT be the end ofthe matter.Each one of us has a human and spiritual OBLIGATION inACTIVELY helping th

Yom Ha'Atzmaut Page 7 President's Report, S & WHC AGM Page 8 Shul Library, Lighting up in Costa Blanca, . Fair Reporting Jack De Metz 391535 . Dencora Court Tylers Avenue Southend-On-Sea Essex SS1 2BB T 01702 332311 TE RD SOUTHEND OURT OSE T SOUTHEND HIGH S E PORTLAND A QUEBEC A