Finchley Persian Sephardi Min-yan has formally joined Finchley Synagogue (Kinloss) as a satellite community, with full United Synagogue membership status and Kinloss congregant benefits. It is first formal arrangement between a United and Sephardi community.
The Persian minyan has operated from the Finchley Synagogue site for a number of years. As part of the recent Kinloss refurbishment, a new shul was constructed for the minyan.
Finchley's assistant minister Rabbi Leibush Heller leads the minyan. To protect its rites and customs, Dayan Yonasan Abraham has been appointed the London Beth Din's representative on Sephardi affairs.
Kinloss minister Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis hailed the agreement as "a wonderful expression of the creative and harmonious spirit within our thriving congregation. It will hopefully serve as an outstanding model for other communities to follow."
Minyan senior board member Joseph Lavian said it demonstrated that "Jews from different parts of the world can be part of the same organisation, pray in the same building, yet follow different customs and rituals with mutual respect and understanding".