Whizz-kid recreates Golders Green High Street using LEGO

The attention to detail is remarkable, with Shloimy ensuring that the bus – 240 – is even numbered correctly, and, as with the tiny shop signs, he has printed out the bus number to replicate the real thing. 

Shloimy told the JC that his love of LEGO came from the fact “you can build anything with it – the possibilities are endless”.

His mother, Judith Brukirer-Ritsma, said Shloimy has had an ongoing love of LEGO bricks since he was just three years old. “He has always loved building his own creations and was always looking for things which he could recreate”.

Two years ago, Shloimy built a home museum, where he displayed all the aeroplanes he had previously made out of LEGO.

This time, he wanted to do something which would appeal to a wider audience, said Judith. Golders Green, therefore, seemed the perfect next step in Shloimy’s LEGO reconstruction journey, being both an integral part of the London Jewish community and the place where Shloimy was growing up.

Shloimy with his Lego model of Golders Green - and some of the detail (Photo: courtesy)[Missing Credit]

Starting before Pesach, he took several weeks to build the final product, taking trips to Golders Green High Street to study any of the shops he didn’t already know inside out. “He would also sometimes use Google Maps to have a look,” said his mum.

Visitors are invited to view the model for a fee of £2, with all proceeds being donated to the Jewish charity MARS, a medical advocacy and referral service, which provides both medical and financial support to patients.

The charity holds a special place in the family’s heart due to the “amazing” care they gave to Shloimy’s father and the wider family when he was diagnosed with a brain tumour two years ago, and they continue to assist the family today with any ongoing issues.

On a more personal level, Judith said how the initiative had given Shloimy a huge amount of confidence, even remarking that he had been announcing, “The tour starts here!” to the 600-plus visitors who have so far come to see the model.

One of the visitors was a Hatzola volunteer, who exclaimed: “That’s my truck!” when he saw that Shloimy had included the Hatzola ambulances which replaced the four which were destroyed in a terrorist attack in March.

Indeed, Shloimy said “the stretcher that moves out of the [Hatzola] ambulance and the rottiserie chicken that moves inside Kosher Deli –all the moving parts” were his favourite elements of his design.

Judith commented that for Shloimy, “LEGO is about problem solving, and creating something” – and the popularity of his Golders Green reconstruction via word-of-mouth shows that his efforts have paid off.