On a sunny Sunday afternoon, the scene was set, for the first time in living memory (well at least in the living memory of the U9s), a team formed with representatives from both Belsize Square and Alyth Gardens headed out onto the pitch in the knowledge that a victory in that afternoon’s match against the North-West London Jets would ensure that Alyth Belsize U9s would become league champions 2011/12!

Dear Haverim

On April 15, a few days after Passover, 37 members of our congregation  will undertake a two-day heritage journey to Krakow. Together with Dr Antony Polonsky, a synagogue member and the highly esteemed professor of Jewish history at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, I will lead what promises to be a moving, educational and life-changing trip to Poland.

The most homesick I have ever been during my time at university was a couple of weeks ago, when I became properly ill for the first time since I have been an undergraduate. I spent the weekend in bed with a sore throat, heavy cold, headache, nausea, achy limbs and anxiety over my essay due on Friday that I had yet to start (luckily, I received an extension). My housemates were lovely – checking on me and bringing me tea, yet it wasn’t the same as being at home.

Dear Haverim,

I thought I would do something totally different this month. Instead of the usual “words of wisdom”, I decided to instead to share with you more about myself and my family. After all, it has now been a year since I joined my Belsize Square family and I am certain that most of the members of our congregation know absolutely nothing about me.