Shmuli Brown Explains Shlichus Work on BBC

Rabbi Shmuli Brown was initially reticent when he was contacted by the BBC to make a programme about his work as chaplain for Chabad of Liverpool Universities.

But he soon changed his mind as he realised the exposure would be great for his work.

Manchester-born Rabbi Brown is one of a number of chaplains – including Anglican and Roman Catholic – who are featured in the BBC Two programme The Chaplains, to be screened in the new year.

“I was sceptical in the beginning and I wondered how they would make me look after the editing process,” Rabbi Brown told the Jewish Telegraph.

“But then I thought about it and realised it would be great to showcase the crucial work we are doing to millions of television viewers.

”I feel that myself and my family, together with the Liverpool Jewish Students’ Society, have brought Judaism alive on campus and there is no better way to advertise that as through television.“

The Chaplains will also focus on the work done by chaplains for football teams and at hospitals and airports.

The BBC team began filming Rabbi Brown in September and followed them as Chabad at Liverpool Universities arranged activities for freshers week and its educational programmes.

They are still making the programme and filmed Rabbi Brown and a number of students on a bowling trip last week.

”We serve around 150 to 200 Jewish students on campuses in Liverpool,“ he said.

Rabbi Brown, 32, studied at yeshivot in Jerusalem and Arad before being offered the chance to become Chabad rabbi in the Ukrainian city of Dnipropetrovsk, in 2000.

He spent nine years there, before a brief sojourn in Belgium.

Rabbi Brown started his job in Liverpool in September 2010.

”There were around 55,000 Jews there and when I initially went I was a single guy with not many responsibilities so I wasn’t that nervous,“ he recalled.

But then he met his wife, Israeli-born Tzivia, and she moved to Ukraine to be with him.

Rabbi Brown added: ”Tzivia was working for the Ministry of Education and she persuaded the Israeli government to send her to the Ukraine on a diplomatic visa.

“She encouraged the Jews in Dnipropetrovsk to make aliya and taught them Hebrew, too.”

He and Tzivia have five children – Sora, Rosie, Yudi, Rivky and Zalmy – and the four of them are pupils at Manchester’s Beis Menachem.

Rabbi Brown, who lives in the Sefton Park area of Liverpool, added: “We commute every day to Manchester to take the kids to school.

”It is a challenge, but we are happy to give them a decent education.

“The future of Judaism lies with the younger generation.”