Community news and notices

Lost Property
If any of the following lost property items belong to you, you can collect them from the reception desk during opening hours. If the items are not claimed within two weeks they will be donated to All Aboard:

Dull pink water bottle
Gold coloured 2 stone drop earring
Black silver lined lunch holder with daisy pattern
Fan in flower pattern holder

There's a new rabbinic blog 'A Place In The Sun?' from Rabbi Howard available on his website. 

Proposed Mussar Courses

Anna Dyson, former member of FRS, is planning to run a series of online courses with Rabbi Marcia Plumb on Mussar, exploring the intersection of Jewish wisdom and mindfulness – a wonderful opportunity to cultivate inner peace and connection from the comfort of your own home.

To help them create a course schedule that best suits everyone's needs, they have asked if anyone interested would take a few moments to complete a short expression of interest form. By letting them know your preferred days and times, you'll be directly helping them shape the upcoming course and ensure they offer options that work for you.

Please click here to access the form

Filling out this form does not, of course, commit you to joining the course.

New Connections:
Do you wish you knew other FRS people with whom to enjoy walking, playing musical instruments, games,  yoga, Friday night dinners, swimming, visiting museums or theatres, reducing your carbon footprint, ride-sharing, protesting or campaigning about social justice issues or any other activities or projects?  

NEW CONNECTIONS, our exciting new initiative, aims to help you to link up with other members who share your passions and interests so that you can enjoy each other's company while deciding what you would like to do together and when, how and where. to do it.  The only limits will be those your newly formed group sets, as long as they coincide with the values and rules of behaviour set by our FRS community.

For more information or to get involved, contact Janet Berenson on janetberenson77@gmail.com with your name, address, area of interest, and contact details.  

Parking at FRS
We very much need your help to keep good relationships with our neighbours by following these parking guidelines, particularly at the moment!
* If there is space in one of our two car parks, please use them rather than parking on the street. Just press the buzzer by the car park gate and we will open it.
* If you need to park on the street, please do not block residents' driveways or drop-down curbs.
* If you can take public transport or walk, please do so.
* If you need to book an accessible parking space, please email our Volunteer Receptionists.
It's challenging for our neighbours to have a large public building on their street, and we need to do everything we can to minimise the impact. We really appreciate your help!

FRS Wellbeing are a group of Mental Health professionals who volunteer to support members of FRS. In recent weeks many members have been traumatised by the events in Israel. If you are one of those members and would appreciate a conversation and support, please contact the group on wellbeing@frs.org.uk

Eighth Rung wants your unwanted laptops, computers and phones and help people back into work!

2econd Chance is a charity that provides work-based training for people furthest away from the job market by training them to recycle computers and unwanted tech.

Many of the trainees have physical disabilities, learning difficulties or social, emotional and mental health needs.

Some of them come to 2econd Chance through Kisharon Langdon, one of our partners, 

We see this as a great opportunity to link up our two charity partners. All we need are your working laptops (up to 6 years old), which 2econd Chance will collect and ensure all data is securely wiped, protecting against potential data breaches and providing you with peace of mind. 

The refurbished computers are given a second chance, either being sold at affordable prices to fund more training places or given out to individuals and families that need them.

To donate devices individually or from your organisation or workplace, please contact isobel@2econdchance.co.uk. We’d love to hear about it too. Thank you.

For more information email Yvonne Richards at yrichards111@gmail.com

FRS are grateful to PJ Library for allowing us to give babies receiving a baby blessing at FRS the gift of a Jewish book to start off their library of Jewish books.

Receive the gift of FREE Jewish children’s books sent to your home
 PJ Library sends high-quality, Jewish books to families with children aged 0-8 years old, each month. The award-winning books celebrate Jewish culture, values and traditions through a wide range of stories and beautiful illustrations. PJ Library books are FREE and posted directly to child(ren), so they can build their own Jewish bedtime libraries at home. Over 8,000 children receive these books throughout the UK. Sign up your child (and any siblings under eight) at pjlibrary.org.uk.

NHS Jewish BRCA Testing Programme
Ashkenazi Jews have a 1 in 40 risk of carrying the BRCA gene - this is 10x the normal population.
The news that NHS England are now rolling out testing for the Jewish community is fantastic and we would urge as many people as possible to get tested. You can find out more information including how to get tested here.