Grassroots Jews is a north west London based high holy day celebration founded by communities based in Belsize Park, Willesden Green, West Hampstead and Kilburn.
Click here to book your place at this year’s event.
One of this year’s co-ordinators, Dan Freedman, reveals why they chose the JVS as their new home….
“Having started in a back garden seven years ago by a group of Jews who felt traditional services weren’t attuned to their changing religious and spiritual needs, Grassroots Jews has flourished into a 350 strong volunteer movement of committed co-creators, whose community is entirely self sufficient and who celebrate Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur with each other every year.
For the past few years this has taken place at the Moishe house in Willesden Green in a large tent in the back garden, but the numbers have swelled so much that the space can no longer accommodate those numbers. We needed to find a new venue – and as regular grassroots attendees, JVS Director Lara Smallman and Trustee Dan Jacobs were obvious people to speak to as word spread that a brand new community space was being plannned at JVS.
I remember touring the site last year and immediately envisioning that this would be the place that could help Grassroots Jews continue to grow and evolve. The location is perfect, the spaces are flexible and large enough to host a main prayer space in the garden plus separate spaces for simultaneous parallel programming such as yoga, meditation or services for children.
What really sealed it for me was that both Dan and Lara are part of the Grassroots community – they immediately understood what we’d need to make our event happen and have gone out of their way to help us achieve our vision for this year’s GRJ, one I hope will be the first of many in this exciting new community destination. If you’d like to join us for this years High Holy Days – head to grassrootsjews.org and register to attend.
Grassroots Jews volunteers creating a herb garden at JVS.