It might not have been what Finchley Progressive Synagogue (FPS) member Rafael expected for his big day. But with his mum and FPS minister, Rabbi Rebecca Birk, beside him, Rafael became barmitzvah in front of 14 close friends and family in the synagogue building – and hundreds more tuned in from afar.

Joined in leading the service by Rabbi Danny Rich, a long-term friend of the synagogue, Rafael and Rebecca were watched on screens from all around the globe.

Rebecca said: “In these new strange days, I’d hoped my 95-year-old grandmother would attend my youngest child’s barmitzvah. She did. Along with those of us inside our synagogue, we beamed to 150 households across the world. One Israeli cousin zoomed in from an airforce base.

“Rafael got to tell everyone he was ‘over the moon’ to have got parashat Bereshit and he leyned Torah and haftarah sweetly to us all. Technology definitely added to our simcha!”

Rafael’s barmitzvah was one of the hybrid services featured in a recent article in the Jewish Chronicle, which you can read here.

Hybrid services – which involve a mix of a limited number of people in synagogue and others participating from home – have now been suspended due to new Government regulations, but some communities hope to restart them when the situation allows.