At Mavar, we are determined to build services designed in partnership with our members, as they know best what they need, and our expertise and partnership working can help deliver this. The Mavar team (staff and volunteers) have spent the last six months with our members understanding what is most important to them, and from these discussions (which will continue…

More young Israeli Jews are leaving the Charedim than previously thought - The Jewish Chronicle The latest figures from Israel, as published in the Jewish Chronicle, show around 15% of men and 12% of women under 30 leaving the Charedi community each year. UK stats had indicated for a while now that around 10% of UK Charedi adults would wish…

Some of the lesser-known work we do with adults at Mavar inevitably involves their children. Children who, for one reason or another, have been uprooted, possibly experienced a variety of adverse childhood experiences, and need additional support. At Mavar, we do this via our expert staff and voluntary teams, often helping the parents to understand, guide, and support their children,…

As we head towards the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah), a time of hopefulness, reflection, and renewal, all of us at Mavar would like to wish you and your families a happy, healthy, peaceful, and sweet new year. In my first few months at Mavar, I have seen the dedicated team of Trustees, staff and volunteers we have, and for…

Mavar is delighted to announce a 100% success rate for GCSE results for our member! This was achieved in English and Maths, grade 7, which was two grades higher than predicted, and equivalent to the old A grade. This is an exceptional achievement, demonstrating dedication, application, and resilience, of which we are all very proud. Flowers go primarily to our…

When someone leaves the Charedi community, or decides to increase their secular knowledge, it is often in the face of opposition from the original community. This is the case for men and women, but also for the children they might bring with them. Today, Mavar is celebrating the BTec Exam success of the child of one of our members –…

In the Jewish Leadership's Dangoor Senior Leadership course, we were encouraged to slow down to speed up, in the sense that by sometimes living life at speed, we lose track of what is really important in our lives and work. We can call this being mindful, or work-life balance, or any mixture of words, but what it does is helps…

I have now had the pleasure of being in post at Mavar for 3 months. It has been lovely getting to know the team, volunteers, Trustees, donors, and most importantly, members. Everything we do is informed by the needs of our members so I was delighted to complete with the team the first survey of my tenure. The results were…

In the last few weeks, I have attended events commemorating life-changing or traumatic events, and heard from people who have chosen or been able to change their lives and move on positively from their trauma. They have managed to “make lemonade out of lemons”. Psychology statistics (Hadassah Hospital, Dr Shiri Ben-David) evidences that post-traumatic growth is actually far greater than…

Through discussion with members over a twelve-year period, Mavar has come to understand some of the challenges faced by those who come for support. This reflective piece is based on anonymised member interviews and examines the experiences of people who leave or seriously question membership of strictly Orthodox (Charedi) Jewish communities. The study found that leaving is rarely a sudden…