Welcome to the new Alumni Newsletter
Dear J Soc Alumni
I'm Dan, the development officer, and I'd like to welcome you to the new Alumni mailing list.
A word about myself. I am a former president, canteenie, secretary and entertainment officer, so I've been around for a while. If you have questions or just want to get in contact with J Soc just let me know at development@cujs.org.
We will be sending this out every term, along with occasional other emails. If you don't want to be on this list, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of this email.
Now, to kick things off we have a report from the outgoing president Aron Carr:
Easter term at CUJS began with the festival of Pesach. Chaplains Yisrael and Elisehva Malkiel hosted a wonderful Seder with the Jewish Society in their home, providing a friendly and stimulating atmosphere for Cambridge students to discuss and deliberate the Exodus from Egypt all through the night. The completion of Pesach was marked by a traditional Moroccan ‘Mimmuna’ feast, complete with home-made pita bread and a delicious barbeque.
As usual, CUJS featured a number of engaging speakers, both at our weekly Friday night meals, and for mid-week events. This term, CUJS was delighted to host Lord David Pannick, who spoke about freedom of speech and extremist views on campus, and gave the Friday night attendees a chance to raise their own ideas in a lively question and answer session. We were also privileged to hear from Ron Rappaport, a current student of Cambridge and former Israeli Air Force pilot, who spoke about his experiences at a training mission where some of his co-soldiers fell in a helicopter crash to mark Yom Hazikaron, the day of remembrance for fallen IDF soldiers.
Following the exam period, students ended the term on a spiritual high with CUJS’ Shavuot celebrations. Students delivered talks and led discussions at our night-long Tikkun Leil (evening of study) service on a series of engaging topics, ranging from Shavuot related items such as the Book of Ruth and the giving of the Ten Commandments, to other areas of Jewish thought and law including the Halachot (laws) of redeeming captives. The service was concluded with Shacharit (morning prayers) at sun-rise.
CUJS hosted not one, but two end-of-year parties in 2016. Our annual garden party, held on the 5th of June in the beautiful Fellows’ Gardens of Gonville and Caius College was attended by students and their families. Additionally, Cambridge University Jewish society said goodbye to our chaplains of four years, Rabbi Yisrael and Elisheva Malkiel, at a fare-well garden party and barbeque, featuring a performance from Cambridge’s only Jewish-themed acapella group ‘Geshmacapella’. The Malkiels will be greatly missed by all the students of CUJS for their dedication, generosity, and friendship, and we wish them all the best as they move back to Israel.
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