We held an induction ceremony for Rabbi Michael and Tracey on the 6th of July, 2025. This is what Tracey said.
Chief Rabbi Mervis, Rabbonim and rebbetzin, our local MP, Catherine West, our chair and women’s officer, Daniel Shaw and Ruth Jampel, MHS Honoree officers, dear family, friends and most importantly, the Muswell Hill Synagogue community.
What a true privilege it is to stand before you today and to co-lead this wonderful community in partnership with Rabbi Michael. I also want to say a special thank you to our MP catherine west who was such a great support when Amalya and I were in Israel recently for an unplanned extended stay. Also thank you to Daniel Shaw and Ruth Jampel alongside all the honoury officers and council who have been absolutely fantastic to work with. We couldn’t be more blessed.
Since October 7th, we have all become familiar with the refrain, “we will dance again.” But the truth is, we never stopped dancing. Judaism gives us this extraordinary gift: to punctuate even pain with simcha, even struggle with celebration.
I saw it with my own eyes just a few weeks ago, at a wedding in Israel. As the sirens began to wail, we weren’t frozen by fear. We simply carried the celebration—the musicians and the joy of the bride and groom—down into the bomb shelter. And there, in the concrete heart of the earth, we danced. Because that is what we do. We build sanctuaries of joy in imperfect moments.
Our world feels deeply imperfect right now. When Michael and I began our journey towards you over a year ago, we were in Oxford, immersed in the ideological firestorm of campus antisemitism. We thought, perhaps naively, that outside the university bubble, the air would be clearer. Yet here we are with Jewish hate still raging… it is a unique kind of fear, when we learn that our children are being told to tuck in their tzitzit on a school trip. To hide the very threads that connect them to us, to our history, to Hashem.
That is why, Chief Rabbi, if I may, a story you once shared has stayed with me. The story of your ‘lucky strings’. How your parents, with such profound wisdom, encouraged you not to hide your tzitzit in the secular football changing room, but to frame them as your superpower. And your team was grateful for them after you won the match. You were taught not to shrink your Jewishness to fit the world, but to let your Jewishness illuminate the world.
And that is our vision for Muswell Hill. That is the commitment Michael, and I make to you today. In a world that tells us to hide, we will continue the wonderful work of Rabbi Mason and Rabbi Lizt and build a home that empowers us all to shine.
Our vision is not simply to withstand the hatred penetrating our society, but to overwhelm it with a tidal wave of Jewish life, learning, and celebration. Every Shabbat candle we light, every act of kindness we perform, every page of Talmud we study together is not just a mitzvah that brings us closer to Hashem. It is an act of spiritual audacity. It is a declaration that we will not be defined by our enemies’ hatred, but by our own love for our heritage and for each other.
Our tradition understands this instinctively. God intentionally created an imperfect world—so that we might become partners in its perfection.
The Talmud teaches:
שֻׁתָּפִין הֵן לוֹ לַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא בְּמַעֲשֵׂה בְּרֵאשִׁית
“Human beings are partners with the Holy One, Blessed be He, in the act of Creation.”
— Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 10a
Every mitzvah, every act of compassion or courage, is a brick in that sacred construction. Even our bodies, the Mishnah teaches, were created incomplete. And through the act of brit milah, we enter a covenant of action—a divine invitation to mend, to build, to sanctify.
Our aspiration for this community is to be your partner. Your partners in mending our corner of the world. We want to work with every single member of this community to celebrate your journey, to find your superpower, and to weave your unique thread into the magnificent tapestry of our Kehilla. Please find us wherever you can, talk to us, and share with us.
Together, we will continue dancing. Together, we will show our children, and the world, the unapologetic beauty of a living, breathing, and thriving Judaism.
Am Yisrael Chai