In London’s Bromley, Chabad Brings Jewish Life Into the Open

In the summer of 1940, the British army’s Spitfires that held off the Luftwaffe flew out of Biggin Hill, in what is now the London borough of Bromley. At least 34 of the pilots in that battle were Jewish. More than eight decades later, many of the borough’s Jews would rather not be noticed.

Before Rosh Hashana, a rabbi new to Bromley went door to door with honey cakes. Rabbi Mendy Blesofsky, who recently moved there with his wife Breina, was meeting people face-to-face and inviting them to come hear the shofar.

At one house, when Rabbi Blesofsky offered to help place a mezuzah on the front door, the woman who gratefully received the cake admitted that she was afraid to display her Judaism publicly.

So they put one up on the inside of the doorway, and more on the other doors in the house. Her 19-year-old son recited the blessing. Then he mentioned he’d never had a bar mitzvah. He’d heard about it, but he said he wouldn’t look it up online because it felt “too holy to Google.” His mother didn’t know where to begin.

The Blesofskys have experienced many such encounters  in Bromley. They estimate about 1,500 Jews live in the area, widely dispersed across the large suburb. The recent uptick of antisemitic attacks in the UK, including the burning of four Jewish volunteer ambulances in March, makes local Jews want to keep a low Jewish profile.

Many don’t know about each other, either. “We met someone who told us their child was the only Jew in school,” Rabbi Blesofsky said. “Then we introduced them to a family who had lived around the corner for the past 20 years, and they never knew.”

Avi Bracha, an Israeli who has lived in the area for 26 years, travels a while each way every Thursday to buy challah for Shabbat. “I told Rabbi Nissan Dovid Dubov,” he said, referring to the director of Chabad of South London, “that we need Chabad in our area.” Now, the Blesofskys live 15 minutes from his home. At this year’s High Holiday services, he was introduced to Jews living nearby he’d never met..

The family from the honey cake visit came for Rosh Hashana. The Blesofskys held services at a local synagogue and blew the shofar in a park, out in the open. Since then, community members have been participating in Torah study classes, joining Shabbat dinners, and are now looking forward to a public menorah lighting.

That, said the rabbi, is his goal: “To create a Jewish community, a sense of Jewish pride and Jewish joy.”