GesherEU provides support and assistance to anybody who has decided to make the difficult transition from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community into the mainstream world. We recognise that moving into secular society is like being a “new immigrant”.
It can be very confusing and isolating, especially as you may not have the practical knowledge, education or skills you need to function independently in a totally new environment.
We are here to help. We can offer you a new community, as well as help with legal advice, opportunities for education, welfare support, and much more.
We’re based in North London, and also have a chapter in Manchester. Our members come from across the UK.
Our members tell us that when they leave their community of birth and move into wider society, it’s like being a refugee in their own country.
GesherEU started its life around a large table in our founder, Emily Green’s, dining room. After leaving her Chasidic community in 2012, Emily went through an extremely stressful and lonely time negotiating the family court system, in order to retain access to her five children and choose their schooling. There was nobody to support her.
She was determined that, in future, no-one else should have to go through trauma like she’d experienced, alone. Once a successful and landmark Court of Appeal judgement was behind her, she organised a meet-up for anyone else who, like her, had left their Charedi community and wanted companionship and support. Word spread, and 20 people turned up to the first social event at Emily’s home.
At the end of 2013, Emily gave a presentation at the the Limmud Conference, asking for volunteers who could help her turn her small social group into a functioning organisation. She named this nascent charity GesherEU - Gesher means ‘bridge’ in Hebrew - because its purpose was to serve as a bridge between two worlds, the ultra-Orthodox and the secular.
GesherEU was registered as a charity in May 2014. Our team of volunteers soon grew to include a fundraiser and a treasurer. We continued to hold regular meet-ups, and began to run residential weekends, which have remained a popular community-building feature of the year. Following requests from our members, we also started to run meet-ups on religious holidays. Through a partnership with Gateways, we began to support members with their education.
Towards the end of 2019, we raised funds to pay for a community coordinator, who took over organising our social events. And in October 2022, with National Lottery funding, we welcomed our first employee, a welfare support officer, who helps our members deal with the practical and emotional challenges they face.
In 2024, we set up a Zoom parenting group. We also celebrated our 10th anniversary, with a party and awards ceremony at JW3. From a handful of people sitting round Emily’s dining table, we now have well over 100 members - and we keep on growing.
Chaim C, Stamford Hill
We are still largely run by volunteers. As we continue to expand, and our organisation’s needs become more complex, we are now looking to fundraise to appoint a CEO, who can manage our operations.
GesherEU is keen to recruit new trustees to help grow the charity and to bring new ideas and energy to the Board. If you want to know if you’d be a good fit, please first read this website and ask yourself if you’d be happy working to build a community that gives its members a voice and choice over all aspects of their lives.
FREEDOM – CHOICE – COMMUNITY
GesherEU supports people in the UK who have either left a Charedi community, or are considering doing so, to integrate into the wider world.
@GesherEU 2025 | Registered UK Charity No 1157062 | Sitemap | Built by Twenty-Two
