The JC Leader: Looking outside...Baking for glory

Looking outside

A perennial complaint within our community is that we exist in a bubble — the phrase used by the Chief Rabbi last year when launching his Ben Azzai programme, which took young Jewish men and women to India.

That programme was itself a response to the problem — and now, in its second year, it will be taking 16 “engaged and outward-facing Jews” to Africa in December. But, although the issue is real, we sometimes overdo the angst.

Visit most Jewish schools and you will see projects that focus far beyond our community. And this week alone we report on two examples of how deeply involved we are beyond the bubble. This summer, 16 FZY members travelled to Ghana to run a camp for 115 local children on a trip arranged with Tzedek UK — an organisation that does superb work and exemplifies the ways in which we focus on the wider world.