Chabad of Oxford hosted a special Shabbat Dinner last Friday night in honour of the first recorded Jewish Lord Mayor of the City of Oxford in almost 900 years, Cllr Elise Benjamin, who is also the City’s first Green Lord Mayor.
The Shabbat dinner, which was attended also by former Jewish Councilor of the Green Party, her husband, Craig Simons and daughter, was hosted at the Slager Chabad Jewish student centre in central Oxford.
The event was also attended by city dignitaries Cllr Dick Wolf and Cllr Matt Morton, in addition to close to about 80 Jewish students, faculty and community members.
The student president of the Oxford University Chabad Society, Oleg Giberstein, St Antony’s College, Oxford, congratulated the Lord Mayor on behalf of the Jewish students for her great achievement of becoming Lord Mayor, as well as recently the Sheriff of Oxford.
Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, warmly welcomed the Lord Mayor to the Chabad Society, and said it’s an honour to host this historic event at the Chabad Society, as it marks a milestone in the revival of Jewish life in Oxford, of which the Chabad Society has played an important role, including the building of the first Mikvah in Oxford in 800 years.
The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Cllr Elise Benjamin, also entitled the First Citizen of the City of Oxford, spoke to the Jewish students about the international role of the Lord Mayor and her pride of the the Jewish connection to the city going back to medieval times.
The list of Lord Mayors of Oxford stretch in an unbroken line to 1122 when there was still a substantial and prominent Jewish community in Oxford until their expulsion in 1290. They resided on Great Jewry Street, currently known as St Aldate’s, in the centre of the then walled city, only five minutes walk from where the Shabbat dinner took place.
The Lord Mayor Cllr Benjamin’s connection to the Chabad Society goes back ten years, when she was instrumental in helping Chabad of Oxford establish the tradition of having a 12 ft Chanukah Menorah in the centre of the city, which has now become an annual event in the city attended by hundreds of locals and dignitaries.
Fellow Oxford City Councillor, Mr. David Williams, called the Shabbat dinner ‘a night for celebration and thanksgiving’ and said “I agree completely that this is a very historic moment for the Jewish Community in Oxford and one that they take great pride in. It is a symbol that the Jewish community in Oxford is respected and on a par with all other religions and faith communities in our tolerant and multicultural City.”
The Shabbat dinner was partly kindly sponsored by ‘Oxfordshire Ales’.