A packed and pensive October on campus

The following email was sent out to all subscribers on 31/10/24

Dear friend,

As October comes to an end, so too concludes the end of a jam packed High Holiday season with the festival of Simchat Torah, which marks one year in the Jewish calendar since the horrific massacre in southern Israel on October 7th, 2023.

Across the country, Jewish students have been participating in events to mark this first anniversary, such as in Nottingham where students sewed a memorial cover with which the Sefer Torah was dressed with honour, or in Bristol where a special commemorative event was held. Across the country, Jewish students joined vigils and activities in their local regions.

October has seen the remaining courses commence as well as encompassing all the Jewish holidays which mark the first month of the Jewish calendar. Inevitably, some students’ course programmes clashed with days of religious observance and our Chaplains assisted a number of students with navigating these challenges alongside planning and hosting hundreds of prayer services and serving thousands of festive meals during this period.

---

Campus Highlights

• Rabbi Natan Fagleman ensured that the students in Lancaster had their first sukkah in over 6 years

• Our Chaplains in Nottingham ran an ‘Escape the Sukkah’ event following last year’s success

• Rav Gav braved the wet weather and joined over 150 Jewish students at London Jsocs’ pub crawl, providing them all with hot dogs to go!

• Our newly appointed Chaplains in Bristol, the Forges’s hosted over 100 students at various events from Rosh Hashanah to Sukkot

• Oxford started off the new term with their new Chaplaincy couple, the Blums, during the holidays, including enjoying a ‘sushi in the sukkah’ event with many students in attendance.

---

Thoughts from Campus…

I’ve really appreciated Moish and Tanya’s support and events over all the recent festivals. Despite being in my final year and supposedly very well accustomed to university life, I found it reasonably difficult to find my rhythm will all the stop-starts for festivals – especially as Yom Kippur fell in the first week of term! Moish and Tanya’s plenteous array of events and meals made a huge difference to my first couple of weeks; I went many, many times and hugely appreciated the space they provided for us to have Yom Tov meals, still socialise on Chag days, and so on. Huge thanks to them!”

Sam Kramer, 4th year, Classics, Trinity College Oxford

---

Your continued backing enables us to provide Jewish students with access to a UJC Chaplain wherever they study in the country. With your help, our crucial work can continue and Jewish students will be empowered to be active members of the Jewish community during their time at university and beyond. If you are able to support our work at this time, please consider making a donation through one of the buttons below.

Here’s to a year of calm, joy and success for our students, our community and beyond,

Sophie Dunoff,

Chief Executive Officer