This Shabbat saw a special celebration for 10 young members of The Ark Synagogue, marking the culmination of their Kabbalat Torah programme.

Kabbalat Torah seeks to engage teenagers in exploring and building a positive Jewish identity as they mature and grow together – keeping them invested in their synagogues and the wider Jewish community, post Bnei Mitzvah.

The Ark’s Kabbalat Torah Shabbat gave the young people a chance to bring all their experiences together from the 18-month programme, which included a long weekend in the Czech Republic. To mark that they had visited the Czech town of Kolin, they read from The Ark’s Kolin Scroll that arrived from the Memorial Scrolls Trust in 1965.

The group were taught by Anna Masters and nurtured by The Ark’s Senior Rabbis, Aaron Goldstein and Lea Mühlstein.

Rabbis Aaron and Lea said: “We have known most of this KT class from birth. We asked God to bless them when they were born, at their Bnei Mitzvah and now as a group. This is one of the privileges of being rabbi and we look forward to nurturing their future lives.

“More than two thirds of The Ark’s children continue to Kabbalat Torah from Bnai Mitzvah and it has been the foundation of groups of friends returning as adults to raise their own children as Jews within our synagogue or at other Progressive Jewish communities.”

• Pictures by Victor Shack