Roving Rabbis scout Oxfordshire

Roving Rabbis scout Oxfordshire

Rivka Mendelsohn

Chabad of Oxford hosted two young student rabbis from the US to tour the towns and villages of Oxfordshire during their summer vacation. They have visited over a hundred unaffiliated Jewish individuals and families in one week and many more throughout their time in the county.

Zalmy Brackman, brother of Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, and Levi Sarfati, travelled, equipped with a wide selection of over 150 Judaic books and articles, into the countryside searching for unaffiliated Jews. Their philosophy, according to Sarfati, is clear: Every Jew should have access to Judaism on his or her wavelength no matter how or where they may live.

This form of 'roving rabbis' outreach was launched by the Lubavitcher Rabbe, Menachem Mendel Schneersohn OBM, almost 50 years ago.  He claimed that being a Jew comes with responsibility towards ones fellow brethren’s physical and spiritual welfare, and stressed that no Jew is too far to be reached, and no effort too great to achieve this objective.  As Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks so eloquently summed up: “The Nazis hunted down every Jew with hate: the Lubavitcher Rabbi hunts down every Jew with love.”

Having met over 100 people in one week ‘the response has been overwhelming,’ says Sarfati. ‘Many people we met warmly invited us into their homes and were taken by complete surprise upon discovery that Judaism has a rich and warm spiritual side besides all the do’s and don’ts.’ One man commented how he felt completely different after having donned the Tefillin for the first time and explained how his grandfather would have been so proud of him. Others show obvious emotion while re-identifying themselves as Jews.  ‘It makes it all worthwhile,’ says Sarfati. 

‘Our most disappointing experience yet,’ says Sarfati, ‘is discovering that a published holocaust survivor from Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps,  suffering from terminal cancer and Parkinson’s disease is being looked after by her non-Jewish husband in a town without any other Jews and  has most likely been signed up for a non-Jewish burial. Despite our efforts, the husband would not spare us any time at all and closed the door in our face - but we haven’t given up and are still looking into how we could influence things in a positive way.’

Brackman and Sarfati explain why, as natives of London, they have chosen to come back to England rather than visit more remote parts of the world, where their colleagues visit, from India to Greece to Africa. “We feel our responsibility lies at home,” declares Brackman. “There is an equal need, says Brackman, to reach out to Jews in the small towns and villages across England and help them realize how easy and enriching it is to stay in-touch with their Judaism with the help of modern technology”. One example that always blows people away is www.askmoses.com where one can have a thoughtful discussion with one of a team of first rate Jewish scholars at one’s own leisure 24 hrs a day.’

Brackman explained that he feels there is a growing challenge facing Anglo-Jewry, which makes the importance to reach out to small communities even more urgent. Having grown up in Edgware, a diverse Jewish community, he continues, "I can’t help but notice over the years how the Jewish community in the UK seems to have begun to move away from the middle of the road - attending synagogue on Shabbat for the ‘shmalts herring kiddush’, and either seeking more spirituality by becoming more religious or in contrast simply not coming to synagogue altogether", the latter representing the majority of Anglo-Jewry.

In addition, when looking at the UK as a whole, he says, since small Jewish communities throughout the country are declining, while the larger cities are rapidly increasing in size, many Jews in the hundreds of smal towns and villages dotted around the country are able to remain unaffiliated and more easily assimilate.

As the Roving Rabbis wind down their adventures for this year, and prepare to head back to the United States to continue their studies, one can take a cue from these patriotic, young student rabbis. Each Jewish person in his or her own way, Sarfati says, can share ones Jewish knowledge with fellow Jews and ensure that Jewish identity that has been kept alight throughout the generations with much sacrifice remains strong in every corner of the world wherever Jews reside. The UK should be no different.

To read more about ‘Roving Rabbis’ worldwide visit: www.rovingrabbis.com and for more info about Chabad of Oxford www.oxfordchabad.org