Enfield & Winchmore Hill: Shavuot & the Queen’s birthday celebrations
Event
For the auspicious occasion of the Queen’s 90th birthday, many Jewish communities celebrated in true patriotic fashion, with the Enfield & Winchmore Hill congregation even fusing their Shavuot and birthday celebrations. Not only did this allow for communal bonding, but it ensured that attendee numbers were much higher than usual for a festival following Shabbat, with some infrequent shul-goers coming along too.
Objectives
To increase shul attendance on Shavuot
To celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday
Evaluation from Rebbetzen Sufrin
‘We wanted to celebrate the Queen’s birthday and at the same time ensure that we would still have a Minyan for Shavuos. Sadly, when Yom Tov follows Shabbat the attendance in Shul drops. We were oversubscribed for our lunch. We invited the Queen to attend. She sent us a letter explaining that she had a prior engagement and then sent another one to be read out to the participants. One of our members prepared a D’var Torah and we had a topical activity, which went down a treat. It was nice to be joined by members that we have never seen before.’
Participant Feedback:
- A special thanks and congratulations to the Rebbetzen for her efforts in organising the meals over Shavuot and ensuring that everyone was not just well-fed, but that everyone who attended had a truly uplifting experience. The whole occasion was enhanced by the wonderful support also from the Office of the Chief Rabbi for which the community should express its gratitude
- This was a very enjoyable event which I was pleased to see attracted new people.
- A great service combined with an excellent communal event. Very good indeed.
