Finchley Reform Synagogue has been involved in Twinning since 2008. At the outset we were twinned with Emuna in Vitebsk in Belarus. A lot of work was spent fundraising for this community and we have made a substantial financial contribution to them. We have also sent, and continue to do so, a great deal of humanitarian aid.

In 2009 were asked if we would consider adopting a second twinned community in Polotsk - also in the Vitebsk region in the north east of Belarus. Polotsk are an even needier community. They receive practically no funding at all. It was decided that as Emuna have a second twin in America and do receive financial support from the World Union for Progressive Judaism, FRS would offer its twinning support to Polotsk. However, FRS are still continuing to help the Jewish kindergarten group ‘Shalom’ in Vitebsk.

So - Polotsk! Debra Brunner (FRS’s Twinning Coordinator) went to visit this community with Artur Livshyts (our Twinning Coordinator and FRS member based in Minsk) in January 2010, and they found a lively group of Jewish people who meet in two small rooms once a week. The facilities are spartan, they have no Torah scroll, and they have no money. They haven’t had a visit from a rabbi (there is only one Reform Rabbi in Belarus) for over a year. Yet they keep going, and against all the odds, there is a spark of enthusiasm and a will to develop and grow.

Since our initial meeting in January, there have been ongoing discussions between FRS and the people in Polotsk, Yakov Basin - the founder of the Reform Movement in Belarus and Artur, and it has become completely clear that the only way forward for the communities there is for them to learn how to become independent and self-sufficient. To learn how to stand on their own two feet and develop and grow in their own right. This is a big ask in a country where there is very little wealth, but FRS has spent the last year developing a five year model for self-sufficiency. Over the five years FRS will work closely with Polotsk teaching them skills, creating initiatives and giving the tools for self-sufficiency. We will give them financial support, which will ideally reduce over the 5 years as they start to generate some income of their own, and we will continue to send them humanitarian aid (toys, clothes, stationery, toiletries and Judaica). Over the 5 year period we will be getting to know the community better, hopefully hosting some visits from them, and visiting them over there. It will be a journey, not just for them towards independence and growth, but also for us, culturally, educationally and spiritually.

In the last 6 months we have been successful in procuring a Torah scroll for Polotsk, and with the help of the Jewish Child’s Day Charity and our very own FRS Charity Committee, we are now able to buy Polotsk a community vehicle which will be used to bring children, some of the elderly and some disabled children to the community centre. It will also be used by the community to collect the humanitarian aid from the depot in Minsk (a five hour round trip by road) and it will also be used as part of an initiative by the youth to rediscover Belarus’s lost Jewish heritage. The teenagers there have created a program of Jewish journeys - to visit important locations and discover their history, but until now they couldn’t do it as they didn’t have the means or the transport. Now they do!

To all those of you who have been supporting collecting and coming to the fundraisers - an enormous thanks goes out to you. Keep supporting, keep collecting and keep doing what you are doing. It is making a huge difference for the Jewish people in Polotsk for which they are immensely grateful. And to everyone else who have yet to become involved - please do so...it’s immensely rewarding, hugely interesting and it’s what makes us at FRS the special community that we are.

Jewish Child's Day supports the FRS Twinning Project

If there was ever a time to support the Twinning Project - it is now!And you can support in lots of different ways:

Come to the fundraisers, click here for details of events

Make personal donations through FRS,

organize your own event (a sponsored event maybe, or give up birthday/anniversary/chanukah presents this year and ask your friends and family to donate to the Twinning project instead).

Nominate the Twinning Project on your bar/bat mitzvah invitations and ask guests to make a contribution....or ask your son/daughter to consider making a donation from their bar/batmitzvah money to the Twinning (did you know that if they do that they can double the donation if they do it through the UJIA ‘myfund’ initiative www.myfund.org.uk)!!

Collect and donate good quality clothes, toys, Judaica, stationery, toiletries, disposable nappies etc. Please call FRS on 020 8446 3244 if you would like to drop in any items.

If you would like to get involved with helping out at fundraisers, donate raffle prizes, bake cakes or would like to come onto the Twinning Fundraising Committee, we would love to hear from you.

For more information, please contact
Debra Brunner on 020 8446 3244