Jewish Life

By nminsky

  • Born

    I was born at St Mary's hospital in London. My Mum's family have lived in England since Oliver Cromwell readmitted the Jews. Displayed in the Jewish museum in London there is a certifcate proclaimg my relative the second Jew in England to have 'freedom of the city' which meant he could take his sheep across London bridge. My Dad's parents both came to England as small children from Poland escaping anti semitism. However, they both lost a large chunk of family in the Shoah.
  • Period: to

    My life

  • Baby Blessing

    I had a baby blessing at Southgate and District Reform Synagogue, where my parents were active members. My full name is Naomi Charlotte Minsky and I have an additional hebrew name Davida Miriam. My parents had alot of people they wanted to honour so I was given multiple names.

  • Being Jewish in a non-Jewish school

    I attended my local primary school where I was one of a handful of Jews and the only Jew from an observant family. My Grandma would run an annual 'Jewish assembly' and taught challah making classes.Twice a year the entire school would go to Church for christmas and the harvest festival. My sister and I were allowed to go home early on these days.

  • First day at religion school

    I attended my Shul's religion school on a sunday morning. I loved learning all of the Torah stories and singing Debbie Friedman songs.

  • Camp!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I spent every summer from the age of 9 at RSY-Netzer summer camp. This was the youth movement of the Reform Movement and the highlight of my year. The camp was very idealogical and I gained a love of community, judaism and social action through my involvment. My closest friends today are still those I made on camp.

  • My Batmitzvah

    My Bat Mitzvah parasha was Bemidar. I lead the service in my community, gave a dvar torah and read the portion. This was a huge achivment for me as I am dyslexic and struggled with hebrew reading. My Grandma put my talit on for me at the begining on the service and cried because she never thought she would live to see a day when a girl could read Torah in public.

  • Moving to Orthodox Jewish day school

    I decided to spend my last two years of school at JFS which is a modern orthodox jewish day school. ( At the time there were no community schools in the UK). It was the first time I was exposed to more traditional Judasim. I loved and thrived being in a warm community focused enviroment. After having long conversations with my teachers I began to keep Kosher and Shabbat.

  • Poland

    I went on a school trip to Jewish Poland. It was an incredibly emotional experience for me, especially when we drove past the town that my Grandpa grew up in. Today it has a different name and no trace of the once vibrant Jewish community. I left with an increased gratitude for the Jewish community's ability to survive and a feeling of responibility to be a present and active member of the community.

  • Being a Madricha

    I was a very active madricha at my camp. I loved leading discussions about Judaism, leading tfilah, and dealing with pastoral problems. I was very ideaologically invested and was constantly trying to improve and increase the Jewish content of camp life.

  • Limmud

    I attended my first Limmud Conferece in England and was exposed to cross communal learning for the first time and loved it. I also was exposed to a Judaism that could exist outside of the demoninational boxes. I felt really proud that the British community could be so creative and dynamic.

  • Shnat Netzer

    I spent a year between school and university on my youth movement's Israel programe. I studied at Machon L'Madrachai Chultz Haaretz. During this year I began to feel more estranged from Reform Judaism and the concept of informed decision making and began to attend services at Shir Hadasha (a femininst orthodox synagogue). By the time I finished the year I identifiedwith modern orthdoxy, wanted to make aaliyah and spend more time learning about Judaism.

  • University of Manchester

    I studied History and Theology (Holocaust Studies) at Manchester. I struggled to combine being relgious and the academic approach to religious studies. I became friends with a modern orthodox social group and became increasingly observant.

  • Simchat Torah

    During the Simchat Torah celerbrations of my final year at university. The student Rabbi refused to allow the girls to dance with the Torah. I was deverstated as I was the only person in the community who thought that this was wrong. I began to feel as if I did not fit into either the Reform or Orthodox community. I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands and set up my own partnership style minyan.

  • Working at JCoSS

    Upon graduating I worked as the Informal Jewish Education and Social Action co-ordinator at the first cross communal Jewish day school in the UK. I enjoyed my job and I knew that I wanted to work in the Jewish community proffessionally and decided to go to Pardes to train.

  • Pardes

    Last year I studied in the year programme and this year I am begining the educators programme.