Synagogue office details:
phone: 020 8421 5482
e-mail: admin@kolchai.org
Contact names:
Rabbi Emeritus:
Rabbi Samuel Rodrigues-Pereira
Senior Warden
Pete Martin
KOL CHAI'S HISTORY
Kol Chai began in October 1986 when a small group of friends decided to set up a small friendly Jewish community in Hatch End. We began with monthly erev-Shabbat services in people’s homes and as word spread numbers soon increased such that a local hall was hired. Before long, services were being held weekly.
The Community was established formally in March 1987 with its first AGM. By September of that year we opened our Religion School to 30 children. Our Religion School now has some 90 children aged from Reception through to an active Post B’nei Mitzvah group. Many of our teenagers return to study for a GCSE in Religious Studies and train to become Teaching Assistants, for which we have our own home-grown programme that is not only recognised by the Leo Baeck College Centre for Jewish Education, but is made available by them on our behalf to other communities.
In the beginning, our services were taken mostly by lay readers from within our own community. From early in1987 we were assisted by Rabbi Samuel Rodrigues-Pereira, who became our rabbi the following year. In 2001, Rabbi Pereira became our Rabbi Emeritus when Rabbi Dr Michael Hilton joined us as our new rabbi.
We continued hiring local halls until the summer of 1994 when the first Kol Chai synagogue building opened in Uxbridge Road. The hall seated 100 (at a squeeze) and was too small for us almost as soon as it was complete. The Community continued to grow and so in 1993 work began on the Kol Chai synagogue Mark II. We can now hold all our services in our own home, apart from the High Holyday services, of course.
Kol Chai Synagogue
In a relatively short time, Kol Chai grew from 30 families to become an established community of over 400 adults and 150 children. We have a lovely synagogue building, a successful religion school, thriving youth clubs for ages 8-13, a full diary of activities and we are still a ‘small’ friendly Jewish community in Hatch End.
Inside Kol Chai Synagogue
Although we are no longer small in size, we retain the atmosphere of being small and friendly and we continue to call ourselves a ‘community’ rather than a ‘synagogue’ to emphasise the importance of the people that make up Kol Chai. As we continue to grow we intend to retain that focus.
