While IJC enjoyed a short summer recess, the community did not sleep! We gathered in person once each month, beginning this year on July 22nd for a midsummer Kabbalat Shabbat and Potluck Dinner, reaching out to the western fringes of the IJC’s Belgium-wide community. IJC member Chantal and her husband Frank welcomed us to their beautiful home in Destelbergen, near Ghent. We prayed in their spacious ‘orangery’ – half inside, half outside, under a grapevine heavy with fruit, concluding with Kaddish in memory of close family and friends who had passed away. And before tucking into a splendid potluck meal, the thirty participants shared in a mezuzah blessing and witnessed the placing of a new mezuzah – handmade from Krakow – on the doorpost of Chantal and Frank’s home.
In addition to welcoming several new members to an IJC event for the first time, we were able to give long-term IJC member Veronica Lederman a warm IJC embrace as she and we said Kaddish for her recently deceased husband Gilbert Lederman.
Our next event took place on August 12th in Brussels. This time Maria Loose – IJC’s hardworking treasurer – and her husband Eckhart welcomed us to their home and garden in the Woluwe neighbourhood of Brussels. The weather gods were in our favour as our minyan gathered round the table in the garden for Kabbalat Shabbat, while Peter and Deb Goldfein laboured at the grill, preparing delicious vegetable brochettes and marinated salmon steaks. We all enjoyed a fabulous meal in great company and once again welcomed a couple of new arrivals into our community.
I look forward to seeing you all on Saturday September 3rd for our first regular Torah Breakfast (back in the library upstairs) and Shacharit in the sanctuary, and on September 4th for our first day back at school.
Check our new website – same address ijc.be – for times and details of all our upcoming services, Hebrew School dates, and other events.
Rabbi Brian