Kehillat Kernow (The Jewish Community of Cornwall) is a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

community with about 100 members in

Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, associated with the

Movement for Reform Judaism Reform Judaism (formally the Movement for Reform Judaism and known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain until 2005) is one of the two World Union for Progressive Judaism–affiliated denominations in the United Kingdom. Reform is relatively ...

. Founded in 1999, its name is a combination of the

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

word ''kehillat'' (community) and the Cornish word ''Kernow'', meaning Cornwall.

Services

Services take place fortnightly on

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; he, שַׁבָּת, Šabbāṯ, , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the week—i.e., Saturday. On this day, religious Jews remember the biblical storie ...

mornings at 10:30 and are held in a local school, with alternative venues for

High Holidays The High Holidays also known as the High Holy Days, or Days of Awe in Judaism, more properly known as the Yamim Noraim ( he, יָמִים נוֹרָאִים, ''Yāmīm Nōrāʾīm''; "Days of Awe") #strictly, the holidays of Rosh HaShanah ("Jew ...

and some festivals. They are led by members of the community and, occasionally, by visiting student

rabbis A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as '' semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form o ...

from

Leo Baeck College Leo Baeck College is a privately funded rabbinical seminary and centre for the training of teachers in Jewish education. Based now at the Sternberg Centre, East End Road, Finchley, in the London Borough of Barnet, it was founded by Werner van ...

. The community uses a

Torah scroll A ( he, סֵפֶר תּוֹרָה; "Book of Torah"; plural: ) or Torah scroll is a handwritten copy of the Torah, meaning the five books of Moses (the first books of the Hebrew Bible). The Torah scroll is mainly used in the ritual of Tora ...

on permanent loan from

Exeter Synagogue Exeter Synagogue is in Synagogue Place, Mary Arches Street within the old city of Exeter, Devon, and is the third oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom. Originally built as a Sephardi synagogue for Dutch Jews trading in Exeter, it is now a s ...

and also one that it received from the

Royal Cornwall Museum The Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro holds an extensive mineral collection rooted in Cornwall's mining and engineering heritage (including much of the mineral collection of Philip Rashleigh). The county's artistic heritage is reflected in the mus ...

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

. The scroll was previously used by

Falmouth Synagogue Falmouth Synagogue was the primary synagogue of the Jewish community of Falmouth, Cornwall. The synagogue building still stands in Gyllyng Street overlooking the harbour, commemorated by a plaque, whilst a Jewish cemetery (next to the Congrega ...

, which closed in 1882. It was officially handed over by the

Duke of Gloucester Duke of Gloucester () is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curren ...

to Kehillat Kernow at a ceremony in the Royal Cornwall Museum on 28 May 2004.

Education

The community runs a ''

cheder A ''cheder'' ( he, חדר, lit. "room"; Yiddish pronunciation ''kheyder'') is a traditional primary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. History ''Cheders'' were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th ...

'' for children and young people aged 2 to 15.

Communication

Its newsletter, ''Kol Kehillat Kernow'', is published three times a year.

References

External links

Kehillat Kernow official website

Jewish Small Communities Network: Kehillat Kernow

on ttp://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/ ''Jewish Communities and Records – UK''(hosted by

JewishGen JewishGen is a non-profit organization founded in 1987 as an international electronic resource for Jewish genealogy. In 2003, JewishGen became an affiliate of the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in New York Ci ...

)
The Movement for Reform Judaism

Kennedy, Naomi: ''Cornwall's Jewish Journey'', Faith Features
BBC Cornwall, 28 September 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kehillat Kernow 1999 establishments in England Jewish organizations established in 1999 Organisations based in Cornwall Reform synagogues in the United Kingdom Religion in Cornwall

Services

Education

Communication

See also

References

External links