Shul Magazine

The Birth of the Kingsbury Courier

by Irene Glausiusz

How it all began - 

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Our dear friend Leslie Hershie Rubner would often visit our house, then in Wembley, not a million miles from his house in Kingsbury.  He and my husband Gershon both had the same Hungarian background and thus had much in common.  Hershie would pop in most mornings and he and Gershon would take pleasure in listening, via the computer, to Kol Israel in Hungarian.  Brush up their language skills in effect.

One morning when Hershie arrived he told us that the person who had edited the Kingsbury Newsletter "HaMilim" didn't want to do it anymore and he had been asked by the Kingsbury machers if he would take on the job?  They knew he liked writing, had done something similar for his South African community - he seemed like the obvious choice.  However, he was a bit shy about the proposal and came up with a suggestion.  Would I co-edit with him?  I had had experience of producing a magazine when I worked for the Association of Jewish Friendship Clubs, so I accepted his offer.

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We immediately started pooling ideas and decided from the word go that we wanted a real magazine not an A4 news-sheet!  But we needed a title and after some thought, settled on the name "The Kingsbury Courier".  It would be in booklet form A5 size and would include photos and colourful designs.  Only snag was we were only allowed two coloured pages because as one of the Honorary Officers said "more coloured pages?  Coloured ink is the most expensive liquid on the earth"!  So the front and back pages were coloured and the rest of the copy and photos were to be black and white.

From the outset, Hershie planned the front cover of each issue with a design relating to whether it was the Pesach or Rosh HaShanah edition.  Each was beautiful.  The text inside began with an Editorial relating to whatever was going on in the world/shul news. 

All shul members were implored to write articles for the magazine, but few took up the challenge, but we didn't mind because we had no shortage of ideas that we felt were worth writing about.

Sometimes, Hershie would suggest talking to a shul member who had an interesting story to tell and this proved to be a regular feature. For example, a shul member who came from Tehran told us how he escaped from Iran, reminiscing that Tehran had been lovely for the Jews, a city just like Los Angeles.  Yes, well maybe?  Another interview took place with an elderly lady who on a trip to Greece, went up in a hot air balloon.  Age didn't matter one bit!  Hershie wrote up the story of "The Shamash and His Shul" anecdotes from the old Hackney Synagogue.  He was one of Hershie's neighbours.

If we came across an interesting anecdote or news item, we had no hesitation in including it.

We decided to include a "Mazal Tov" column which we considered important.  The Honorary Officers thought this a repetition of past announcements sent on-line but we thought "Good news is good news" so let's shout about it.

As a matter of course, we included what could be termed "bread and butter" stuff, Rabbi's page, Chief Rabbi's message, Board of Deputies and Ladies' Guild announcements.

We never lost our enthusiasm for the magazine. Hershie was brilliant at composing the layout and any photos that came our way.  When I relocated to Israel, we continued co-editing and after he so sadly passed away, I continued along the same lines with help from our son Jeffrey.  But it wasn't the same, and so with regret, I stepped down after the Rosh HaShanah 2020 edition and handed the job back to the Kingsbury Honorary Officers.