Yom Kippur in Glasgow

The past three years I have been in a different country for each Yom Kippur so there is always a lot to think about.  I was lucky to stay with a cousin of a friend of my mom in a town just outside the Glasgow border called Giffnock.  It is where a good portion of the Jews live and there are two kosher delis (only 3 miles down the road from my flat so I may be returning).  Alan and his mum were quite hospitable with a full dinner with kosher chicken and letting me stay in their 106 year old house.  They are Scottish through and through and have been very involved in the Jewish community all their lives. 

The synagogue was less than a five minute walk from their house so it was convenient to get to even in the rain.  It is an orthodox shull by our standards but I don't know if they call it that here because it is the norm.  Our conservative is what they would call reform or liberal and there is one of those synagogues in Glasgow.  The synagogue building was pretty large with a traditional layout, the cantor chanting from a pulpit in the middle of the room and the rabbi standing up front by the ark.  The women sit in an upper gallery.  We sat in the front section, facing the middle of the room.  Most members have permanent assigned seats where they can keep siddurim and tallitot all year round.  The synagogue does not provide Machzorim either so I brought one of Alan's and people use a variety of different editions so they have a handy sheet for keeping your place during the service.  Alan kept explaining to me that until about twenty years ago the synagogue would be completely full on the high holidays with people having to stand in the isles, now there are tons of vacant seats throughout.  Lots of young Jews have been leaving Glasgow for Israel and other places because there is not much work here.  The Jewish community is aging fast and one of the other synagogues in the area is closing its doors this year.  There is talks of combining the remaining synagogues into one congregation although it is unlikely because people in different neighborhoods would have to drive quite far to shul.

As it was an orthodox service they went straight through without leaving much out and there was only a thirty minute break between musaf and mincha so it was quite a bit of praying and very few interjections by the rabbi.  The cantor is someone they bring in from London and has a beautiful voice with a projecting clear tone than was nice to listen to although difficult to follow (some would say his diction could use improvement).  The rabbi is from New Jersey and though he has lived in London and Glasgow for over twenty years, the congregants still complain of his American "accent."  Overall I liked the congregation and had a lot of good thinking time.  It is nice to be experiencing so many new things as I try to figure out what I will be doing in the future (both near and far) and I appreciate how lucky I am and have been throughout my life.  With so many options open to me, I still haven't drawn any solid conclusions.

After the hours of service I returned to Alan's place and broke fast in traditional Scottish style.  We started with hot tea and a bit of cake to ease in and then we had a meal of bean salad, baked potato, and a traditional cold fried fish.  I've never had cold friend fish before but it tastes like it sounds...  

When I got back home, my flatmate was having a flat-warming party with some of his friends from the couchsurfing community.  It was great to be back with younger people and to have some good social time.  It was especially interesting because of the group there were only a few Scottish people and the rest were from Germany, Sweden, Italy, Australia, Norway, Portugal and probably some others.  I am getting the full international experience and it's great to hear people's stories and about their many and varied travels.

There are obviously no pictures from Yom Kippur but here are few that were taken on my flatmate's camera during the party: