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Ukrainian refugees thank Maidenhead Synagogue for their hospitality
Members of the shul opened their homes, provided English classes and donated bicycles
July 29, 2025 09:47
Members of the shul opened their homes, provided English classes and donated bicycles
July 29, 2025 09:47Around 200 Ukrainians who sought refuge in the UK after the Russian invasion in February 2022 have thanked members of Maidenhead Synagogue for providing them with “hope and hospitality”.
As three years of English classes came to an end, one of the students said at a closing ceremony: “The Jews of Maidenhead have been our best friends.”
The classes were the initiative of recently retired shul minister, Rabbi Jonathan Romain, who said he had set up the lessons “partly as a human response to those in need, and partly as a Jewish response, knowing what it is like to be a refugee, as was my mother, who came here from Nazi Germany on the kindertransport. It was my generation’s chance to repay the debt and open our hearts as others had done to us in 1939 when we needed it most.”
Rabbi Romain, who also housed a Ukrainian family for 18 months, said that the synagogue had provided different levels of classes - for complete beginners to those who already had some knowledge of English, “but now that they have all achieved sufficient English skills, while there are very few new arrivals, it was felt that it was time to bring [the classes] to a close”.
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