DOCSLIB.ORG

COMPLETE-LATEST.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
COMPLETE-LATEST.Pdf Programme of Events Welcome to Chagigah 2016! This weekend we hope that you will relax, be spiritually uplifted, learn something new, meet new friends and be inspired to take lots of ideas back home with you. We encourage you to participate in as much of the weekend as you wish. We have produced a full and varied programme and hope there is something for everyone as we create a community together. Please feel free to go to any session that appeals to you but remember you can dip in and out of sessions as you feel fit and if you want a break, take one! If you need anything, please look for those of us in teal polo shirts. Shabbat shalom from all of us on the planning team. 2 Friday Registration Opens 16:00 Reception Reception 16.00 Getting to Know You; Enjoy a drink in the bar, a quiz and make new friends. Long Hall 1 Bar Early Dinner; For under-fives (pre-booked) 17:00 Restaurant 17:00 – Orientation Tours; Will leave from the bar between 17.00 and 18.00 to show you Bar 18:00 around this year’s venue 17:30 – Kuddle-Up Shabbat Service; For our youngest participants, with Student Rabbi Alfreton 18:15 Robyn Ashworth-Steen Learn the Chagigah melodies If you would like the opportunity to get in the mood for Shabbat with a bit of singing come along and learn some of the melodies we Barber will be using this evening grow With Cantor Zöe Jacobs Navigating Chagigah whether it’s your first time or your umpteenth conference this session aims to help you get the most from your weekend. With Rabbi Mark Ambergate Goldsmith and Irit Burkeman Introduction to the Initiatives You’re here, you’re enthusiastic and you’re ready to MacGregor make change. Meet the initiative teams and each other. 18:30 – Kabbalat Shabbat; Led by Rabbi Danny Freelander (WUPJ) & Cantor Zöe Jacobs Chatterley 19:40 19:55 – Kiddush and welcome Lawrence 20:00 20:00 – Dinner Lawrence 22:00 22:15 – Oneg; Celebrating Shabbat with song Chatterley late Late Night Study with Rabbi Jackie Tabick; So the spies came back and chaos set in...Were Moses and Aaron right to at least 'seem' to abdicate responsibility? Was Moses actually such a good leader? Should he be our role model? Was it a clever Long Hall 2 ploy to let Joshua and Caleb take control? Would you have followed the Ten or the Two, are fear tactics useful? And what would have happened if The Boss had not intervened? Come and discuss our sedra for the week Having God Conversations – Tools and Anchors for the Spiritually Curious and Educators; God talk can be daunting, and hard to find the words for, especially if we are being asked difficult questions! This session won't promise any answers but together we will explore ways we can begin to have conversations about God with Long Hall 1 ourselves and with others. Does Judaism offer us any help? Can we exist as a community together when we hold such a diverse collection of beliefs? With Debbie Young-Somers 3 Saturday 07:00 – Breakfast Restaurant 09:45 07:30 – Jogging Minyan with Rabbi Celia Surget; Exercise your body as well as your mind Bar 08:15 08:30 – 09:15 David, Bathsheba and Uriah: Babies, Baths and Corrupt Kings; We will explore the afterlife of one of the most iconic stories in the life of King David. We will begin by studying a variety of rabbinic responses to the text of 2 Samuel 11-12, and end by Chatterley 1 exploring some reactions to the story in the context of the English Civil War (including Thomas Hobbes and John Milton), and see how they might affect modern political thinking. With Student Rabbi Elliott Kardstadt Mindfulness, Contemplation, Tefillah and Me; Danny will guide us through a contemplative and reflective experience where we will take some time for ourselves before the day begins. This session is designed to model that which we Lawrence 2 can repeat ourselves at home and help us begin to think about how we might develop our own personal spiritual practices. With Student Rabbi Danny Newman Torah Tots; Who is your favourite Superhero? We would like to invite you to come and celebrate Shabbat dressed as your favourite superhero! We won’t leave you out if you haven’t got a costume with you, but we will be thinking about what Linby makes a superhero, as well as singing and dancing our way through some fun Shabbat songs! All welcome but ideal for 5’s and under! Babies welcome too! With Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers Beit Din Surgery; Do you have any questions about the work of the Beit Din? Maybe about conversion? Or divorce? Or surrogacy? If so, pick a 10 minute time Barber slot from outside the door and grab a chance to talk privately to the Convenor, Rabbi Jackie Tabick Shabbat Morning Service; We will all join together as one community and be led in 9:30 – t’fillah by Rabbis Paul Freedman, Esther Hugenholtz, Miriam Berger and Fabian Lawrence 11:30 Sborovsky Session 1 Session 1 Tackling Adult Social Care Initiative: The Big Picture – It isn’t Pretty; Step beyond your own responsibilities or that of your community and allow Merav to share her knowledge from the coalface. Understand the realities of adult social care and the 11:50 – Holroyd 12:50 repercussions of loneliness and isolation on the NHS and on local authorities. If that doesn't alarm you let's take a look at the future if we do nothing. With Merav Dover Empowering Jewish Practice Initiative: My Jewish Practice; Let’s dig deeper into our Jewish practice by looking at why we care about it and the different ways in which we experience it. In this session we’ll explore, through some inspiring texts, the ways that we can engage with Torah, Tefillah and mitzvot in our lives. We’ll Barber also be listening carefully to what participants want from this process. And we will attempt to answer the big question – what is Jewish spirituality and how can we bring it closer into our lives? With Rabbi Benji Stanley 4 Session 1 Re-Imagining Leadership Initiative: Cultures and Communities; Every organisation (contd) has a culture but have we become prisoners of our own? Communities have all invested time and money in events and programming yet still haven’t managed to 11:50 – engage as many members as they hoped to. Why is it case? What could be Chatterley 2 12:50 changed? Join us to explore how we can create cultures of participation and meaning through building relationships with our members which will leave them eager to pursue leadership roles with Charlotte Fischer Leo Baeck College @ 60: Keep calm and Study the Zohar; The Zohar is the cornerstone of Jewish mysticism and has had a remarkable impact on Jewish and non-Jewish culture (even on Madonna!). Yet, how can this obscure, riddling book Alfreton be relevant to Reform Judaism? To get the answer, be prepared to embark on an inspiring journey which will lead you to the depths of the Zohar, and unravel its hidden layers. With Dr Alinda Damsma Scriptural Reasoning: A Text Based Session Bringing in Voices and Perspectives from Three Faiths; Based on a Scriptural Reasoning model, this session will see three faith leaders bring their Scriptures to life, spoken or chanted in their original languages. Texts from Islam, Christianity and Judaism teach on the issue of poverty MacGregor and we will have the chance to discuss and question how we make our sacred texts relevant in the UK at a time of increasing need. With Reverend Anna Alls, Sajid Mohammed and Student Rabbi Robyn Ashworth-Steen. Chaired by Rabbi Sybil Sheridan Step Back in Time; People look back on their youth movement days with such joy, but how many of us get a chance to step back in time and experience a peula (session) from our summer camp or youth club days? Join us as we engage in Ambergate chinuch (education) in an immersive experiential way. It will be fun and educational all at the same time! With Libby Burkeman and Camille Grahame Reform Judaism in Israel - Is there a future? Current events in Israel, following the historical decision on opening the Egalitarian Western Wall and Mikveh for Reform converts, have raised political disputes that quickly became very violent and loud. Can we live in a reality where Israel, the world's only Jewish and Democratic state, Scargill is also the only state where women can't doven with a tallis, lead services or use (or even touch) a Torah Scroll? We will discuss these current happenings, as well as the development of a unique new Reform community that is growing rapidly in Israel's periphery- in Be'er Sheva With Naomi Efrat Zen and the Pen Spend some relaxing time exploring the freedom of your mind and losing yourself in this perfect Shabbat morning activity. No artistic skills Bar area needed with Kathryn Michaels 13:00 – Restaurant 14:00 Lunch 14:00 – Free time 15:00 Colouring is not just for kids What is all the fuss about? Crafting with Kathryn Bar area Michaels Beit Din Surgery; Do you have any questions about the work of the Beit Din? Maybe about conversion? Or divorce? Or surrogacy? If so, pick a 10 minute time Hazelwood slot from outside the door and grab a chance to talk privately to the Convenor, Rabbi Jackie Tabick 5 Meet the Team If you would like any help, advice or ideas from the MRJ team here is an opportunity to get to know who is who: Yon Borthwick – RSY-Netzer Libby Burkeman – Informal Education Director Martin Dix – Communications Manager Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner – Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism Bar Geoffrey Marx – MRJ Vice-Chair Daniel Raphael – Head of Fundraising Gilly Shulman - Head of Community Partnership and HR Rabbi Benji Stanley – Rabbi for Young Adults Robert Weiner – MRJ Chair Rabbi Debbie Young-Somers – Community Educator Open Beit Midrash Bring a question, follow an issue - a bunch of Reform Rabbis will be on hand to help you to find an answer through classical and contemporary Barber sources.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Second Generation Memories S It Passes Into Middle Age and 1946 Proved Traumatic
    VOLUME 16 NO.6 JUNE 2016 journal The Association of Jewish Refugees Second generation memories s it passes into middle age and 1946 proved traumatic. Thereafter, however, Kahlenberg and the Leopoldsberg, to enjoy beyond, every generation looks they took annual holidays in Austrian resorts the spectacular views across Vienna and its back on its own stock of memories, like Kitzbühel and Pörtschach am Wörthersee, surroundings. I learnt that in 1683 the King Asometimes embellished, sometimes of Poland, Jan Sobieski, had launched his diminished, sometimes transmuted and even attack on the Turkish forces besieging Vienna falsified by the passage of time. In this respect, from the Kahlenberg and that much of the the memories of the second generation, the Höhenstraße had been built in the 1930s to children of the Jewish refugees who fled from provide work for the unemployed during the the Nazis, have arguably taken on a special Great Depression; both these topics came quality. Born and brought up in their parents’ across to me as almost equally remote historical countries of refuge – in the case of most of our episodes from a distant past. What relevance readers, Britain – many of them retain links could they have to an English schoolboy? through family memories to aspects of their Only many years later did I realise that I parents’ past in their native lands. had been shown nothing at all relating to our But the Nazi years and the Holocaust personal family history, apart from the family created a gulf between the post-war British firm. Not until I saw my father’s documents present and the pre-war Continental past.
    [Show full text]
  • List of Activities – Inter Faith Week 2018
    List of activities – Inter Faith Week 2018 This list contains information about all activities known to have taken place to mark Inter Faith Week 2018 in England, Northern Ireland and Wales. It has been compiled by the Inter Faith Network for the UK, which leads on the Week, based on information it listed on the www.interfaithweek.org website. A short illustrated report on the 2018 Week can be found at https://www.interfaithweek.org/resources/reports The list is ordered alphabetically by town, then within that chronologically by start date. ID: 1631 Date of activity: 19/11/2017 End date: 19/11/2017 Name of activity: Inter Faith Week Discussion and Display Organisation(s) holding the event: Acrrington Library Accrington Youth Group Short description: To mark Inter Faith Week, Accrington Youth Group is using its fortnightly meeting to discuss Inter Faith Week and strengthening inter faith relations, as well as increasing understanding between religious and non‐religious people. Location: St James' St, Accrington, BB5 1NQ Town: Accrington Categories: Youth event ID: 989 Date of activity: 09/11/2017 End date: 09/11/2017 Name of activity: The Alf Keeling Memorial Lecture: Science and Spirituality Organisation(s) holding the event: Altrincham Interfaith Group Short description: Altrincham Interfaith Group is holding the Alf Keeling Memorial Lecture on the theme of 'Science and Spirituality' to mark Inter Faith Week. The lecture will explore how modern scientific discovery relates to ancient Indian philosophy. The lecture will be delivered by Dr Girdari Lal Bhan, Hindu Representative at Greater Manchester Faith Community Leaders Group. Location: St Ambrose Preparatory School Hall, Wicker Town: Altrincham Lane, Hale Barns, WA15 0HE Categories: Conference/seminar/talk/workshop ID: 1632 Date of activity: 13/11/2017 End date: 17/11/2017 Name of activity: All Different, All Equal Organisation(s) holding the event: Audlem St.
    [Show full text]
  • Happy Birthday Harry
    January/February 2016 VOL. XLIII No. 1 Liberal Judaism is a constituent of the World Union for Progressive Judaism www.liberaljudaism.org ljtoday Happy birthday Harry Mitzvah Day NE OF Liberal Judaism’s most The Liberal Jewish Synagogue (LJS) Award for NPLS beloved, and senior, rabbis service was taken by two of Harry’s Ocelebrated his 90th birthday with children, Rabbis Dr Margaret and Richard special services and kiddushim held at Jacobi, along with LJS senior rabbi, communities all over the UK. Rabbi Alexandra Wright. Harry gave the Rabbi Harry Jacobi was joined by sermon. Others in attendance included friends, family and Liberal Judaism Simon Benscher and Rabbi Danny Rich, members at events at The Liberal Jewish the chair and senior rabbi of Liberal Synagogue, Woodford Liberal Synagogue, Judaism, Rabbi Rachel Benjamin and Birmingham Progressive Synagogue, Rabbi Dr David Goldberg. Southgate Progressive Synagogue, At the end of the service, Harry was Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue visibly moved as his young granddaughter and South Bucks Jewish Community. Tali presented him with a Festschrift Harry, who was born as Heinz Martin written in his honour. The book, reviewed Hirschberg in October 1925, and grew on page 10 of this issue of lj today, was up in Auerbach, Germany, twice fled the edited by Rabbi Danny Rich and features Nazis to become one of Britain’s most contributions from leading Progressive NORTHWOOD & PINNER LIBERAL respected and inspiring religious leaders. Jewish rabbis and thinkers. Another SYNAGOGUE (NPLS) won this year’s granddaughter, Abigail, Mitzvah Day Award for Interfaith wrote the biography Partnership of the Year.
    [Show full text]
  • Gender and Profound Changes in European Judaism
    Religion and gender in Europe Gender and profound changes in European Judaism Béatrice DE GASQUET ABSTRACT The role of Jewish women and men in European societies has undergone profound changes over the last two centuries. Their gradual equality of rights with non-Jews—in addition to the process of secularization and assimilation, anti-Semitism, and internal reforms of Judaism—had a different impact on women and men, and transformed Jewish representations of femininity and masculinity. The renewed value ascribed to women as “guardians of tradition” during the nineteenth century was a change that paradoxically enabled them to take on new roles as educators, leaders of Jewish organizations, and sometimes as officers. A major revolution came with their access to secular education, which was particularly early, and also to religious education somewhat later. The profound reorganization of Jewish collective institutions after the Holocaust led to renewed religious polarization opposing the “Orthodox,” who were often in the majority, and “liberals” with respect to women’s participation in the synagogue and the study of religious texts. Festive prayer service at the synagogue of the Jewish Retreat Center in Lehnitz. Lehnitz, circa 1934-1938. Source: Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Ernest J. Mann, born Ernst Glücksmann. (Note: Contrary to orthodox practice, the sexes are not separated. The Torah scroll is carried by young boys wearing hats, but also by a young girl.) Sabbath Nachmittag. Postcard after the painting by Moritz Oppenheim (1800-1882), printed circa 1904, Germany. Source: Joseph and Margit Hoffman Judaica Postcard Collection, Folklore Research Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The Great Synagogue of London.
    [Show full text]
  • Marylebone Journal
    Culture, food, fashion, shopping, history and property MARYLEBONE JOURNAL JUNE / JULY 2011 WATER COLOUR FREE Decision time… Join London’s Premier Health Club and choose 3 Head-to-Toe treats worth up to £180! Call 020 7042 7333 for more details or visit www.thethirdspace.com Terms & Conditions apply. See www.thethirdspace.com/tandc 03—MARYLEBONE JOURNAL Culture, food, fashion, shopping, history and property 08: Estate briefing Community spirit and the Marylebone Fayre People 10: Local lives The two lives of Bob Kidby Features 12: Hearts & crafts Clare Finney discovers a passion for needles and thread 16: Big interview Baroness Julia Neuberger, senior rabbi and self-confessed workaholic Culture 20: The man with the golden touch Dr Kevin Coates takes inspiration from the Wallace Collection 24: Water music American painter Danielle Eubank on her epic adventure 28: Culture in brief Art in Marylebone, Hare Styling and Stephen B Whatley 30: 32: Book reviews Daunt Books’ offerings read and assessed 20: 36: Guide Cultural events in June and July Style 40: Northern soul Skandium founder and design messiah, Chrystina Schmidt 43: Style in brief Bespoke furniture, tailored clothes and fresh new womenswear design 44: New beginnings Fenn Wright Manson’s CEO Louise Barnes on her visions for the future 46: Cape crusaders Mark Riddaway meets Jane Buckley and uncovers Muralto’s provenance Food 48: Rogan’s run Chef Simon Rogan and his pop-up restaurant in Marylebone 52: Food & me Tom McNeile, MD of L’atelier des Chefs 54: World of wine Robert Giorgione takes
    [Show full text]
  • Faith Leaders' Letter
    Address to the Prime Minister. Copied to: · SoS Alok Sharma, BEIS and COP26 President ​ ​ · SoS Dominic Raab, FCDO ​ ​ 29th October 2020 Dear Prime Minister, As COP26 President, the UK’s single most important job is to rally all countries to raise ambition and put forward enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) that close the gap to 1.5°C. As representatives of UK faith communities, we know that faith groups have a powerful ​ ​ responsibility to take action on climate, including supporting the moral and ethical necessity of an ambitious UK NDC. We therefore add our voices to support this call together with Faith for the Climate and the Climate Coalition. A world-leading high ambition UK NDC would send an important political signal and catalyse historic action across the world’s capitals to make the right investments for all our futures. The UK NDC is the most powerful diplomatic tool the UK has to inspire and mobilise global action on delivering the Paris Agreement, especially if the UK puts forward the NDC early, thereby leading from the front. Climate change affects humanity at the deepest level, raising profound questions about our relationship with the living world. As faith leaders in the UK, we know this especially because of our engagement with the poorest communities here and around the world who are already suffering most. We must all try to find the moral courage to confront these questions, and to transform ourselves and our society. Faith groups in the UK are already taking urgent climate action, with thousands of places of worship switching to renewable energy and religious groups divesting from fossil fuels and reinvesting in measures to protect the environment.
    [Show full text]
  • Rabbinic Statement on the Mosque Burning in Israel
    Rabbinic Statement on the Mosque Burning in Israel כי ביתי בית תפילה יקרא לכל העמים My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples As religious leaders and representatives of Jewish houses of worship around the world, we wish to express our deep sadness and outrage at the desecration of a mosque in the Bedouin village of Tuba-Zangariya in the north of Israel. We condemn this act as an affront to G-d and to the values of our Torah. We extend a hand in friendship and solidarity to the leaders and residents of the town, a prayer for their safety and peace in the days to come, and a hope that those who perpetrated this despicable act will be brought to justice. We condemn those in Israel who exacerbate conflict and strife, and who insist that only one people or religion belongs to this land. We thank the Israeli leadership – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres, the Chief Rabbis of Israel and others – who have spoken out forcefully against this incident. They have demonstrated the Jewish values woven into the very fabric of the State of Israel, whose Declaration of Independence guarantees that Israel will “safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions”. We are grateful for the actions of the many organizations and individuals in Israel who have already raised their voices on behalf of Israel’s highest and truest values. We urge them to continue to take a public stand for the values of pluralism and mutual respect, and against violence, exclusion and racism.
    [Show full text]
  • Faith Leaders Call for 'Jubilee for Justice'
    Faith Leaders Call for 'Jubilee for Justice' Following the year of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, we recall the ancient custom of the Jubilee Year, in which debts would be cancelled. The Hebrew scriptures speak of a Jubilee Year in Despite these achievements, over the last thirty which unpayable debts should be cancelled. The years there has been a series of debt crises Gospel writer, Luke, records that Jesus began his culminating in the present one in Europe. A self- public ministry with a call to restore the just serving financial system has brought the global economy of Jubilee where all have enough. Jesus economy to its knees and we are now seeing the also tells those who have assets, to lend without poorest people in our own society and around the expecting a return. The Holy Qur’an condemns usury world paying the price for this excess. and requires zakah (almsgiving) as an essential duty to prevent wealth being accumulated only among That is why we ask people everywhere to join in the rich. calling for a renewed Jubilee. Finance must be put back in its place as a means to human well being. The Dharmic faiths from the Indian sub-continent We need far reaching changes in the global also teach the same principle. In the Anguttara economy to build a society based on justice, mutual Nikaya, Buddhists read, ‘One holds wealth not for support and community. We need economic and oneself but for all beings.’ Sikhs believe in earning political as well as spiritual renewal in our society.
    [Show full text]
  • EUROPEAN UNION for PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM Minutes
    EUPJ Annual Assembly Minutes Rome 2019 EUROPEAN UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the European Assembly of the European Union for Progressive Judaism (EUPJ) held at the Grand Hotel del Gianicolo, Viale delle Mura Gianicolensi 107, Rome, Italy on Sunday 19 May 2019 at 13H00 local time. Present: EUPJ Chair Sonja Guentner and the other Honorary Officers and representatives of various Constituent Members of EUPJ, as well as invitees as follows: Rabbi Ruven Bar- Ephraim (Jüdische Liberale Gemeinde Or Chadasch Zürich) Switzerland, Carey Bernitz (Beth Shalom Milano) Italy, Joyce Bigio (Federazione per Ebraismo Progressivo) Italy, Arthur Buchman (Shir Hatzafon) Denmark, John Clark (Or Chadasch Vienna) Austria, John Cohen (EUPJ) UK, Noeleen Cohen (Alyth Synagogue) UK, Rabbi Tom Cohen (Kehilat Gesher) France, Rabbi Janet Darley (Kingston Liberal Synagogue) UK, Susanna Donato (Lev Chadash Milano) Italy, William Echikson (EUPJ Brussels) Belgium, Fabio Benjamin Fantini (Beth Hillel Rome) Italy, Rabbi Andrew Goldstein (Liberal Judaism) UK, Deborah Grabiner (EUPJ) UK, Rabbi Alexander Grodensky (Liberal Jewish Community of Luxembourg) Luxembourg, Miriam Kramer (EUPJ) UK, Gilbert Lederman (Beth Hillel Brussels) Belgium, Adam Miles Lewis (Lev Chadash Milano) Italy, Martina Yehudit Loreggian (Lev Chadash Milano) Italy, Celia Naval (Keren Or Lyon / EUPJ) France, Rabbi Joel Oseran (Beth Hillel Rome) Israel, Rabbi René Pfertzel (EUPJ/Kingston Liberal Synagogue) UK, David Pollak (EUPJ) UK, Karen Pollak (Mosaic Reform) UK,
    [Show full text]
  • Religious Leaders' Letter
    Religious leaders call for action to stop atrocity crimes against the Uyghurs in China As religious leaders and leaders of belief-based communities, we come together to affirm human dignity for all by highlighting one of the most egregious human tragedies since the Holocaust: the potential genocide of the Uyghurs and other Muslims in China. We have seen many persecutions and mass atrocities. These need our attention. But there is one that, if allowed to continue with impunity, calls into question most seriously the willingness of the international community to defend universal human rights for everyone – the plight of the Uyghurs. At least one million Uyghur and other Muslims in China are incarcerated in prison camps facing starvation, torture, murder, sexual violence, slave labour and forced organ extraction. Outside the camps, basic religious freedom is denied. Mosques are destroyed, children are separated from their families, and acts as simple as owning a Holy Quran, praying or fasting can result in arrest. The world’s most intrusive surveillance state invades every aspect of life in Xinjiang. Recent research reveals a campaign of forced sterilization and birth prevention targeting at least 80% of Uyghur women of childbearing age in the four Uyghur-populated prefectures – an action which, according to the 1948 Genocide Convention, could elevate this to the level of genocide. The clear aim of the Chinese authorities is to eradicate the Uyghur identity. China’s state media has stated that the goal is to “break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections and break their origins.” As the Washington Post put it, “It’s hard to read that as anything other than a declaration of genocidal intent.” High-level Chinese government documents speak of “absolutely no mercy”.
    [Show full text]
  • EUPJ-Newsletter-2017
    European Union for Progressive Judaism September 2017 Newsletter © European Union for Progressive Judaism Chairman ’s message “Is It Time?” We are now in Elul, the month preceding the holiest Last year I attended the season of the Jewish year. It is a time for reflection, closing session of a major a time for reaching out and a time for new annual event in the European beginnings. On behalf of EUPJ’s Management Jewish calendar, the Committee I wish all our readers a happy, healthy, London Jewish Book successful, Progressive and safe 5778. As is Week. The closing session apparent this is a more dangerous world than we that year featured three could imagine (see my colleague Leslie Bergman’s well known figures of the column on this page) but we remain resolute that European literary intellectual there is a future for us in Europe. Despite all the scene in debate – Is it time uncertainty and anger it is our firm belief that we will for Jews in Europe to once not again be hounded out of Europe. again pack their bags? Leslie Bergman In the paragraph above I men- They concluded not. tioned new beginnings. This Earlier this week I was in Berlin and went to an edition of the newsletter, very excellent but chilling exhibition, “Berlin 1937 – In the sadly, is the last one edited by Shadow of Tomorrow”. That it was “time” for German Arthur Buchman. For more Jews in 1937 was abundantly obvious – perhaps than a decade he has without with the benefit of hindsight. The institutions of state fail produced an outstanding had turned against the Jews.
    [Show full text]
  • 'TO GIVE YOU a FUTURE and a HOPE' Kol Nidrey: There Is No Other Moment That Compares to the Enveloping Enchantment of This S
    ‘TO GIVE YOU A FUTURE AND A HOPE’ Kol Nidrey: there is no other moment that compares to the enveloping enchantment of this sacred service. From the first minutes of silence, accompanied only by the faint tinkling of the bells of the rimonim that adorn the Torah scrolls, through the haunting inflections of Kol Nidrey and the other special Yom Kippur melodies, to the rousing rendition of Avinu Malkeinu in front of the open Ark a few moments ago. Our gathering this evening, pulses with the accumulated heartbeats of all the generations, who went before us on our people’s annual sacred pilgrimage towards Atonement. And yet, we have not stepped back in time. The Hebrew date may be the same as the date first mentioned in the Torah: the 10th day of the seventh month,1 but the other calendar that regulates our lives tells us that today is the October 11, 2016. Of course, every generation of Jews throughout millennia has observed this sacred moment in the context of their own particular time and place. And so, like the generations before us, we have brought with us this evening, our experiences of the past year, and our memories of everything that has happened since we last gathered together on Kol Nidrey; the special moments and challenges, milestones and losses we have experienced and witnessed in our own personal lives, within our congregation, and our other communities, and in the wider society. So, how do we negotiate our lives as Jews in Britain in the 21st century for the sake of a Jewish future in this nexus between the complex legacies of the past we carry with us and the challenges of the present that confront us? As we ponder this question, let me take you back to a particular time in living memory and share with you the sermon delivered by Rabbi Dr Leo Baeck, the leader of German Jewry, on Kol Nidrey in Germany in 1935:2 In this hour all Israel stands before God, the judge and the forgiver.
    [Show full text]