Friday Night

Last Friday my flatmate, Danny, persuaded me to come to a Friday night Dinner at St John's Wood Synagogue. He said we could either turn up at 7.15 p.m for the Service or at 8 p.m. for the meal. I chose the former. Although we were going to an Orthodox (United) Synagogue we drove as it's a little too far to walk (Although I was brought up in a traditional household, I don't consider myself religious).

The service was taken by Dayan (Judge) Ivan Binstock of the London Beth Din (Rabbinical court).

It was an extremely pleasant meal and I'm relatively sure that most people there were about my level of Judaism (prefer an orthodox synagogue but are not that religious). I know for a fact that on my table: one man was taking Public transport and another had driven. I knew one other man (other than Danny) quite well and he was the only one on the table I know for a fact keeps the Sabbath. He was staying with a friend locally.

There was supposed to be a speaker who is an American Expert on anti-Semitism but unfortunately he'd been unavoidably detained in the USA so instead Dayan Binstock gave a talk on the weekly Torah portion (which coincidentally was my Barmitzvah portion) and then led a discussion.open forum on whatever subject people wanted to talk about.