The Charedi community of Canvey Island appear to have been left bemused by a local council initiative intended to help local schoolchildren understand their strictly Orthodox neighbours.

Essex’s Music Education Hub, which is partially funded by the local council in association with the Jewish Music Institute, invited the Don Kipper music ensemble to play to a number of primary schools on the island, with a concert due to take place during Chanukah.

Joel Friedman, one of the leaders of the Charedi community in Canvey, which is primarily made up of Satmar Chasidim, told the Times that it was “a nice initiative… a good thing.”

However, he said that the Charedi community had only been notified “after all the emails had gone out to schools. They did not contact anyone from the Charedi community first, and I would have liked at least some of us to have been consulted.”

He pointed out that “it’s not going to be Charedi music and the dialect is not the right dialect”, and that with regards to the concert, “we can’t attend mixed-gender events or large social events of this type, so if they’d discussed it with us in advance it might have helped.” 

Don Kipper is a mixed ensemble, and strictly Orthodox Jews do not attend concerts where women may be singing.

Raphael Knapp of the Jewish Music Institute said: “We were approached by Essex Music Hub to help organise an education programme in Canvey Island as part of their ‘stand up for diversity’ scheme. JMI are delighted to be involved in the project, which teaches primary school children from four local schools about Jewish music through Yiddish song.”

Charly Richardson, Music Service Lead Officer for Essex County Council, said: “It’s been a pleasure working with JMI to devise and deliver the ‘Canvey Zingt!’ project.

“The Charedi community have been supportive of the project aims.”