Oxford Chabad to Host Mayor

The Oxford University Chabad Society will host a special Shabbat Dinner this week in honour of the appointment of the first Jewish Lord Mayor of the City of Oxford in almost 900 years.

The Shabbat dinner will be hosted at the Slager Jewish student centre in central Oxford, attended by about 100 Jewish students, faculty, community members and dignitaries.

Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of Chabad of Oxford, said ‘it’s an honour to host this historic event at the Chabad Society, as it helps connect the important medieval Jewish history in the city with the current revival of Jewish life in Oxford, of which the Chabad Society has played an important role.’

The Lord Mayor of Oxford, Cllr Elise Benjamin, also entitled the First Citizen of the City of Oxford, will address the Jewish students about the Jewish connection to the city going back to medieval times and the pride and contribution of the Jewish students and community nowadays.

The list of Lord Mayors of Oxford stretch in an unbroken line to 1122 when there was still a substantial and very prominent Jewish community in Oxford until their expulsion in 1290. They resided on Great Jewry Street, currently known as St Aldate’s, in the centre of the then walled city, only five minutes walk from where the Shabbat dinner will be taking place.

Cllr Benjamin is one of the leaders of the Green party on the City Council and was instrumental in helping Chabad of Oxford establish the tradition of having a 12 ft Chanukah Menorah in the centre of the city each year, which has now become an annual event in the city attended by hundreds of locals and dignitaries.

The Shabbat dinner will be partly sponsored by ‘Oxfordshire Ales’.