LBC Student Rabbi gets involved with a new Glasgow Jewish identity project

Recently LBC rabbinical student, Dr Jennifer Verson got involved with West End Project – a new Jewish identity project launched in Glasgow. The project is a semi-regular gathering for Jewish people in Scotland aged between 20 and 40.

The goal of this project is to: “Offer an alternative, artsy Friday night service in Glasgow city centre to attract younger people who might not attend traditional services.” The project was launched as Glasgow Reform Synagogue (GRS) identified a lack of activities for younger Jewish people. The synagogue is in the suburbs, while younger people are concentrated in the city centre near six universities.

Jennifer says: “Last year WEP Founder, Paul Ginsberg, approached LBC looking for a rabbinic student who could support the WEP.

For the first event, I was inspired by my visit to ANU: Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv this summer. On the second floor there is an exhibition on Jews in World’s  Culture. I started thinking about how we tell stories, and how many of our stories are untold. And then I thought- how is this going to be fun? That was the remit! One of my essays for my progressive liturgy class that was taught by Rabbi Dr Charles Middleborough involved research into Ushpizin liturgy and the customs of welcoming holy guests into the sukkah. This was the jumping off point for the first event which used a seder like structure to tell the story of Doña Gracia Nasi.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how we haven’t integrated the expulsion from Spain into our ritual practices, and had a great time developing the symbols that would tell this story of how Doña Gracia smuggled Jews out of Portugal on ships that were part of her spice trade business, to Antwerp and then on the camino difficile over the alps. Participants listened and learned the traditional traveller’s prayer, blessings for seeing mountains and the ocean for the first time, drank Italian wine, and ate dates stuffed with dark chocolate and rolled in cinnamon!

The event really was a joyful way of telling a great Jewish story, adapting some of the most ancient Jewish story telling techniques.

Paul is so dedicated to creating Jewish life for young people in the historic Jewish Centre of Glasgow and has worked with local funders to make it happen.

The event pulled together a lot of strands: my experience in creative events from before my studies, my interest and work with museums, course work that gave me skills and confidence, and of course the opportunity to  support small communities outside of London from the Movement!“

The project was also covered in the Jewish Chronicle. Read their article here.