British Shul Celebrates 30 Years of Rabbi Schochet’s Tenure

By COLlive reporter

A special Shabbos was held on Chanukah in celebration of Rabbi Yitzchak and Chanie Schochet‘s thirty years at the Mill Hill United Synagogue in Mill Hill, a residential suburb in Northwest London just to the east of Edgware.

Having arrived in 1993 as Chabad Shluchim, the Schochets transformed the small community into one of the most vibrant Orthodox shuls in the UK. It also boasts near a thousand children and teenagers.

The shul was standing room only as more than 600 people came to pay tribute during the Shabbos morning celebrations.

Chazan Yanky Lemmer was flown in from New York and UK Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mervis addressed the community during the service.

“This community has been blessed over so many years by the outstanding Rabbi Schochet and his Rebbetzin. Rabbi Schochet continues to make an impact, not just here in the UK but indeed globally,” Mirvis said. “And the kindness and the welfare that Rebbetzin Chanie runs in the community is most exemplary!”

Other tributes were paid by the shul chairman Guy Davis who spoke about how his own life was changed by the Schochets. And Lord Michael Levy who reflected on the way the Schochets transformed the community from 400 families to now over 1800 families.

Neil Minsky, a former community leader who was responsible for bringing the Schochets to Mill Hill 30 years ago said: “When I think about what we were and I look around the shul this morning packed wall to wall, it fills me with immense nachas.”

The community were then treated to a massive buffet luncheon kiddush.