JN man wins BIJA award SHUL OFFERS ‘MEMBERSHARE’

Jewish News co-publisher Justin Cohen was honoured at the 25th anniversary of the British Indian Jewish Association (BIJA).

He received a Community Award at a reception for 100 attendees, which received a warm letter of congratulations from prime minister Rishi Sunak.

BIJA co-chair Dr Peter Chadha read excerpts from the letter, in which Sunak applauded the work of the organisation “in bringing the Indian and the Jewish communities together, along with the vision of your founders. We need organisations such as yours to build the bonds of friendship between di erent communities.”

Cohen, 42, who was awarded for dedication to Indian-Jewish relations, paid tribute to his late father, Melvin Cohen, “a proud British Jew who was born in India”.

Honoured with a Community Award alongside Cohen was C B Patel, chairman and editorin-chief of Asian Voice and the Gujarati newspaper Gujarat Samachar

The event also featured interviews with Josh Glancy of The Sunday Times and Manveen Rana, co-host of The Times podcast Stories of our Times, who spoke to co-chair Zaki Cooper about their careers as well as the similarities between the two communities.

St Albans Masorti Synagogue (SAMS) is to introduce a new funding model that lets members decide how much to pay.

The payment will cover “all the same things that membership always has”, said Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Mo et, in a video, in which he outlined how the new “membershare” payment model di ered from the traditional dues or fees system. “We’re going to tell you what it costs to run SAMS per person per month, that’s the set number that’s presented to everyone… but then we’re going to allow you to choose what is equitable for you,” he said.

“For some families that might be more than the equal per person per month cost, for some it might be less due to their circumstances, but we believe overall that it will balance out.”

He added: “A huge amount of discussion, deliberation and community listening has gone into the decision by the trustees to propose and pursue a new way of funding ourselves.”

In its most recent financial filings, the synagogue said it made a small profit, after several years of losses, with the number of employees having risen from six in 2019 to 11 in 2021.

Darren Marks, a SAMS trustee and past cochair, said the shul’s membershare system was “unique”, adding that it would launch in April.