24 November 2016 Jewish News
www.jewishnews.co.uk
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Teenager’s operation / Partnership minyans / News
Teen’s urgent op appeal The family of a teenage girl with a degenerative spine condition has launched an urgent appeal to raise £175,000 for a lifechanging operation. Lucy-Mae Beacock was born with spina bifida and has been under the care of Great Ormond Street Hospital ever since. Last year doctors confirmed that the 14-year-old, from Barnet, had stopped growing at 4ft 7” and developed scoliosis, a curvature of the spine which, without correction, will progressively worsen. She requires a new procedure called vertebral body tethering (VBT), currently unavailable in the UK. The procedure involves screws being inserted into each vertebra, tethered with a cord and pulled taut to straighten the spine. Without this treatment, Lucy-Mae’s curve, currently at 55 degrees, will increase and stiffen. This will leave her bent over to one side. She must therefore travel to America for the VBT treatment. However the cost, estimated at between £150,000 and £175,000, is the key hurdle and the family cannot afford it. Lucy-Mae’s mother Debbie said: “LucyMae has been heroic in terms of what she has had to go through already, but if we can’t correct this curvature of the spine it could prevent her from doing what she loves – acting, dancing and performing on
Lucy-Mae Beacock has spina bifida and needs an operation to straighten her spine
stage. Aged seven, she joined Chickenshed Theatre and, after playing a lead character at age eight, she declared that she wanted to be on the West End stage. “With typical determination, at nine she auditioned and won the lead role in the RSC’s production of Matilda the Musical. She took to the stage for her first performance as Matilda in London’s West End when she was only 10 and played the role for eight months.” Debbie added: “I have been amazed by how generous the Jewish community
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has been. Lucy-Mae’s school, JCoSS, has been unbelievably supportive and has offered to hold fundraising events. “Our wonderful rabbi, Miriam Berger at Finchley Reform Synagogue, helped organise the fundraising appeal and spread the word. I have also written to a number of Jewish charities to ask if they would be happy to help.” Can you help Lucy-Mae? Visit: gofundme.com/lifechanging-opfor-lucymae
PARTNERSHIP MINYANS PLEA The Chief Rabbi says he wants to “move beyond the damaging and often inaccurate conjecture” surrounding partnership minyans, one week after a leading community rabbi ruled such services were “a breach of Jewish law”. In a letter addressed to United Synagogue rabbis and rebbetzen, Ephraim Mirvis reiterated his position that partnership minyans – traditional services where women take some prayers – are “not halachically sound” and should not take place under the auspices of the US. He also affirmed it was up to the leading rabbinic authority in each community to take the decision on such matters. Last week, Rabbi Chaim Kanterovitz of Borehamwood and Elstree Synagogue, wrote a letter to con-
gregants saying that anyone who leads these services could not lead prayers in the synagogue over the High Holy Days. However, Mirvis maintained he has “every respect for participants of such services, who are cherished members of our communities”. He also outlined the many advances the US has made in involving more women, as trustees of the US and chairs of congregations, as well as being encouraged to deliver divrei Torah at synagogues and recite Kaddish. “It is inevitable that some will feel we are going too far, while others will be of the view we are not going far enough,” he wrote, adding that such disagreement “should not distract us from the progress we are making”.
08/11/2016 10:58