Over 60 Oxford alumni and friends attended Friends of Oxford Chabad Society’s annual Chanukah party in Mayfair last night hosted by Oxford alumnus Alexander Telford and family.
The event took place for the third year running in high-end venue Nove Bar, on Sackville Street, round the corner from Piccadilly Circus, with a Kosher Sushi bar and drinks, as well as traditional Chanukah delacacies, kindly sponsored by Parkway Kosher Patisserie.
The highlight of the gathering, in addition to meeting up with old friends, was the celebration of the recent engagement of Alex Telford (St Peters) to Emma Zimmerman and the recent marriage of Jonny Hyam (Wolfson) to Natasha Shina. They both led the kindling of the Menorah for the evening. We wish them many happy years together.
Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, welcomed the crowd and addressed the theme of Chanukah as emphasising the need to resist watering-down of Jewish heritage and identity, as the Greeks tried to do in the 2nd century BCE, and also show gratitude for blessings in life.
Aryeh Kahn, who graduated Oxford in 1999, said that it was ‘a fantastic and enjoyable Chanukah cocktail that the Chabad Society put on in Mayfair!!’