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Cash-strapped Essex shul finds funds to save rabbi's full-time role

Lisa Barrett had faced losing her job at South-West Essex Reform - or being switched to a part-time role

August 3, 2018 10:50
Rabbi Lisa Barrett
1 min read

South-West Essex and Settlement Reform Synagogue has shelved a plan to make the post of full-time rabbi redundant just days before members were going to be asked to approve it.

Rabbi Lisa Barrett — who joined the Newbury Park-based congregation two years ago — had faced the prospect of either losing her job in six months or having to switch to a part-time role.

But shul chairman Colin Joseph wrote to members last Thursday — four days ahead of the AGM — informing them that the redundancy notice had been “rescinded”.

Proposals to release “some or all of the locked-up capital in our site” were being explored, he explained. If successful, they could produce “significant funds that would secure the financial future of the community”.