300 Come for Baby Blessing

By COLlive reporter

More than 300 people turned out for the annual baby blessing ceremony, a multigenerational tradition in at the Mill Hill Synagogue held this year on Chanukah.

The event, now in its 14th year, provides an opportunity for parents to come together and celebrate the birth of their newborn, in addition to the practices of the bris and naming at the Torah.

Organizers were proud to report that 42 babies were born in the past year in the affluent suburb in the London Borough of Barnet in England.

Parents, grandparents and even great grandparents were in attendance for the blessing ceremony, Menorah lighting and Chanukah party that followed.

Mill Hill Rabbi Yitzchok Schochet proudly noted that the community now has the largest proportion of young children belonging to any synagogue in the UK. “We now have over 550 children under the age of ten,” he said.

“Today is about celebrating the new lights in your life,” Rabbi Schochet said. “But the like the name Chanukah suggests, it is also an undertaking going forward, to ensure a sound Jewish education for your children.”

He said the most challenging part is talking over the crying of so many babies, “but that’s what it’s all about!”

“The one thing that gets them a little uneasy is when I add, ‘I hope to see you all back here again sometime real soon’… But the grandparents love it, nodding their heads in agreement.”