Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Parents Warned After Rowdy Congregant Kids Trashed Shul During Rosh Hashanah

Parents who belong to an Orthodox synagogue in London have been warned to ensure their children’s good behavior during Yom Kippur after many kids damaged congregational property during Rosh Hashanah services last week, The Jewish Chronicle reported Tuesday.

“The wonderful atmosphere on both days of Rosh Hashanah and the hard work that was put into making them run smoothly was blighted by the fact that damage was once again caused to the nursery property,” Rabbi David Mason wrote to members of Muswell Hill Synagogue. “Worryingly, children were also seen throwing tires and bricks down from the fire escape stairs and fighting each other with broomsticks.”

Mason wrote that repairing the damage would cause “considerable expense,” and that security footage would help identify the culprits.

Parents were asked to emphasize to their children that there would be “zero tolerance of any such behavior” in the future.

“We are thrilled that Muswell Hill Synagogue is growing, thriving and a very welcoming place for children,” Mason told the newspaper. “From time to time these things happen and our chair, Karen Ackerman, felt we needed to put steps [in place] to ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future.”

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.