The North London Progressive Jewish Community

We welcome children in our community and place provision for them at the heart of our activities. An education group reports to the Steering Group and welcomes suggestions and involvement.
 
We currently have a lively Cheder led by Laura Miller, who devises programmes to run for a specific period, followed by breaks (usually coinciding with school holidays). Please check with us about the current programme. The Cheder meets fortnightly on a Saturday between 10.50 am and 12.45pm, running concurrently with Shabbat services. Cheder activities are suitable for children aged 7 – 12 and take place in a room upstairs. The Cheder provides a mixture of cultural and religious activities for children from a wide range of Jewish backgrounds, religious and secular, largely through arts, crafts, storytelling and drama. As well as learning about and celebrating all the major Jewish festivals, there are sessions on Jewish history, Jewish ethics and values and Jewish music. We hold a short children’s service just before the cheder at 10.40am, which is led by our rabbi, Shulamit Ambalu. This is run in English, although the songs (and sometimes prayers) are in Hebrew.
 
If you are hoping that your child will have a bar/bat mitzvah in the Community, we would normally expect him/her to have attended Cheder at least from the age of 11, as well as arranging any other necessary preparation in consultation with our rabbi. If you would like more information about this, you can contact Rabbi Ambalu on 020 7403 3779.
 
In another room downstairs, we have a crèche on the first Saturday of the month, run by an experienced community volunteer, Anna Sklair, with help from parents, for younger children. The crèche provides a creative curriculum that celebrates the cycle of the Jewish year. Parents are welcome to go into services once children are settled, but please check with Anna in case help is needed. Children are also welcome in the services, and we organise specific activities for them on festivals etc.
 
We also offer Hebrew classes on a Saturday morning for those children who are ready and interested. These take place at 10am (before the cheder at 10.50am), and are taught by Rabbi Shulamit, who follows the Ha-Sefer Sheli (‘My Book’) curriculum, which is followed by the majority of progressive communities in the UK.
 
Periodically we consult parents formally, through meetings, questionnaires, etc but your views and suggestions are always welcome: just contact the office. We always welcome new members and are more than happy for parents and children to drop in and meet us, or stay for a session to see if they like it. The Cheder and crèche are free of charge for members of the Community. For more information or for an informal chat about the children’s activities, please contact Sue Lukes through the NLPJC at nlpjc@liberaljudaism.org or at the PO Box address above.