New at LJS

Rabbi Neil Janes is joining the ministerial team at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood.

LJS senior rabbi Alexandra Wright ordained him at Leo Baeck College in 2006 and he served Finchley Progressive Synagoue before moving to Israel to study for a PhD in Jewish thought, which he will continue in the UK.

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Walkers take steps to harmony

There was a large Jewish turnout for an interfaith walk on Sunday in St John's Wood and Marylebone, taking in four churches, four synagogues, a mosque and an Islamic cultural centre.

Organisers said that at least 50 Jews were among the 150-plus walkers from 10 faiths.

London Central Mosque imam Sheikh Seddiki Sidi Fawzi told participants the walk "will bring about a society of cohesion, harm

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Bnei Akiva recalls inspiring Handler

The Chief Rabbi led the tributes to veteran Zionist Arieh Handler, who died in Israel last month, aged 95, at a memorial evening at St John's Wood Synagogue on Sunday.

More than 300 people heard Lord Sacks recall Mr Handler's boyish enthusiasm and inspirational qualities.

He also noted his involvement in seminal events - he was present at the declaration of the state of Israel and assisted i

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St John’s Wood alarm shooter sentenced

A multi-millionaire businessman who shot his neighbour's fire alarm to stop it ringing in the middle of the night has been sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid community service.

Peter Shalson, 53, was investigated by police after a shotgun was fired at the property next to his detached home in St John’s Wood, north west London, in January 2010.

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Forged Israeli passports found in office of safe deposit thief

A businessman who ran a corrupt safe deposit company which had £500 million worth of criminal assets seized by police will be sentenced this week.

Milton Woolf, who was previously on the search committee at New London Synagogue to find a rabbi after the death of Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs, charged criminals up to £70,000 to stash their loot in safety deposit boxes with “no questions asked”.

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Bright in Bushey over community director

St John's Wood Synagogue director of programming Rabbi Yosef Richards is leaving to become community and youth director at Bushey shul. He succeeds Rabbi Jonny Spector, who left Bushey last year to pursue a career in education.

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Party for the 100-year-old Liberal synagogue

Britain's oldest Liberal synagogue celebrated its centenary with a musical Shabbat service featuring participants from every decade of its existence.

Around 900 worshippers gathered at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood, on Saturday - almost 100 years to the day that its founders met for the first time in a converted chapel on February 4, 1911.

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Rothschild wedding stars

A high celebrity count at last week's marriage of Jessica de Rothschild and screenwriter Sacha Gervasi at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John's Wood and the Criterion Restaurant.

The bride is the daughter of Liberal Judaism patron Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, the groom the father of Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell's daughter, Bluebell.

The wedding party included actress Helena Bonham Carter and her partner, director Tim Burton, and Duran Duran lead singer Simon Le Bon, according to tweeting guest Sarah (Mrs Gordon) Brown.

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Shabbat-friendly lifts are on their way up

A leading lift company has secured a contract with the United Synagogue to install a lift in St John's Wood Synagogue, north London, that is in compliance with Shabbat law.

The deal with Amalgamated Lifts follows the success of a previous contract for a disabled lift at Stanmore and Cannons Park Synagogue. The lifts operate automatically from sunset on Friday until sunset on Saturday. Additionally, it must still comply with the strict rules and regulations in keeping with disabled lift installations in the UK.

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MP Kaufman 'abused in synagogue'

Sir Gerald Kaufman has claimed he was verbally attacked at St John's Wood Synagogue on Yom Kippur over his political views.

He made the allegations at a Middle East Monitor and Labour Friends of Palestine fringe meeting at the Labour Conference in Manchester on Sunday.

The Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, who regularly criticises Israel, described himself as a "Zionist" and "bad Orthodox Jew" and said he had been a member of the shul for 49 years.

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Muslims in synagogue for post-fast feast

Sixteen Muslims and 18 Jews attended a post-Eid and Yom Kippur get-together at the New London Synagogue in St John's Wood.

Organised by Alif-Aleph (British Muslims and Jews), with the Coexistence Trust and the Cambridge Centre for Muslim-Jewish Relations, the event explored similarities in prayer and the question: "How does fasting at Ramadan and Yom Kippur help us to make moral decisions afterwards?" The discussion was led by New London's Rabbi Jeremy Gordon and Sheikh Michael Mumisa from the Cambridge centre.

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