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LJS Newsthe NEWSLETTER of the LIBERAL JEWISH SYNAGOGUE
March 2019 Adar I/Adar II 5779 THE NEWSLETTER OF THE LIBERAL JEWISH SYNAGOGUE LJS News New stained glass window in the Rabbi John Rayner Prayer Room Rabbi John Rayner z’’l was uppermost in our thoughts at the Shabbat service on 9 February. Inside this issue John and Jane Rayner’s grandson, Lev Taylor (pictured), who is studying to be a rabbi at Leo Rabbi Alexandra Wright on 2 Baeck College, gave the sermon to a packed Echoes of Contempt Sanctuary. He reflected with great affection on Shabbat Services and Festivals 3 John as a grandfather – and avid collector of jokes! Council Report 4 We left the Sanctuary for the dedication service for Forthcoming Events 5 the stained glass window panel created by Ruth Notes from the Rabbis’ Desks 6 Kersley and now in position in the John Rayner Ruth Kersley on the 7 Prayer Room. Rabbi Elana Dellal read from a Stained Glass Window Panel sermon by Rabbi Rayner reflecting on a rabbinic The Tu Bi’Sh’vat Shabbaton 8-9 saying about never praying in a room without The Learning Circle 10-12 a window. Rabbi Alexandra Wright’s dedication Bernie Bulkin’s new book: prayer included a passage about performing Solving Chemistry 13 mitzvot by creating beautiful ritual objects and Community Events 14 places of worship. Igor Zinkov, our student rabbi, Young LJS 15 then read a blessing before everyone marvelled Purim Celebrations at the LJS 16 at the new stained glass panel and enjoyed the The LJS Communal Seder 16 sumptuous Kiddush Jane Rayner provided for this special occasion. -
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue the Learning Circle Classes in Jewish Studies and Hebrew 2017 - 2018 / 5778
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue The Learning Circle Classes in Jewish Studies and Hebrew 2017 - 2018 / 5778 And do not say, sure, I will study. Perhaps you will never have leisure Avot 2:4) 1 Welcome to The Learning Circle At the centre of the life of our synagogue here at the LJS lies its educational programme: the LJS Nursery for children aged 2½ - 5 years old, Rimon Religion School from 3½ to 15, and a full programme of learning and engagement for adults. There is nothing more fulfilling and stimulating than reading a text, listening to a piece of music, looking at a painting, engaging in discussion or learning something new. This prospectus provides a gateway to lifelong learning about Judaism and Jewish cultural identity. For the beginner, Exploring Judaism provides a weekly exploration of Jewish life, history, belief and observance with time to reflect on living a Jewish life. Festivals offer times to delve more deeply into their significance and practice. Lunchtime gatherings on Shabbat have proved a popular way for the congregation to come together to listen to first-class speakers. Art, poetry and music feature in our programme as well as discussions about Israel and Jewish identity. We are delighted to be collaborating once again with Spiro Ark with a full programme of Hebrew and Yiddish classes. In addition, on offer for the first time is a programme of classes at Leo Baeck College. We hope that there will be something that will draw you over the threshold and help to deepen Jewish knowledge and wisdom and enhance our spirituality and Jewish identity. -
Simon Benscher (C
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF LIBERAL JUDAISM (ULPS) – KNOWN AS COUNCIL HELD ON TUESDAY 1st May 2018 AT THE LIBERAL JEWISH SYNAGOGUE SUBJECT TO SECTIONS 26 -32 OF THE MEMORANDUM AND ARTICLES OF LIBERAL JUDAISM (ULPS) PRESENT PRESIDENT / Jeromé Freedman, Louise Freedman, Rabbi Harry Jacobi VICE PRESIDENTS OFFICERS Simon Benscher (Chair), Graham Carpenter, Amanda McFeeters, (DIRECTORS) Jackie Richards, Ruth Seager, AmeLia Viney, Karen Newman, Ros CLayton RABBIS Richard Jacobi, CharLes MiddLeburgh, CharLey Baginsky, Pete Tobias COUNCIL Frank MaxweLL (Birmingham), WiLLiam GLassman (EaLing), Sam Eastmond (EaLing), Ruth SeLo (Eastbourne), Bob KamaLL (ELELS), Richard Stevens (ELELS), Josie Kinchin (FinchLey), ALison Turner (Herefordshire), Peter LobLe (LJS), ALan SoLomon (Mosaic), Jane GreenfieLd (Southgate), Stuart MacDonaLd IN Davina Bennett (Operations Manager, ELstree), Becca Fetterman, ATTENDANCE ELLie Lawson, Simon Lovick, SheLLey ShocoLinsky-Dwyer, ALexandra Simonon, Hannah Stephenson, Rafe Thurstance (minutes). OPENING PRAYER Rabbi CharLey Baginsky WELCOME AND APOLOGIES SB weLcomes everyone to the LJS, thanks the LJS for their hospitaLity. Attendees are notified that the meeting wiLL be recorded for the sake of the minutes, and asks peopLe to state any objections - none are recorded. Those in attendance are asked to state who they are before speaking. Sam Eastmond (EaLing), Davina Bennett (ELstree), ELLie Lawson (LJY-Netzer), Ruth SeLo (Eastbourne) are weLcomed to their first meeting. Apologies were received for Aaron GoLdstein, Andrew GoLdstein, Sharon GoLdstein, Nick SiLk, Peter Gordon, ALice ALphandary, Robin Moss, Lucian J. Hudson, Janet Berkman, Graham Berkman, Jennifer Lennard, Tamara Joseph, Cathy Burnstone, Ed Herman, Corinne Oppenheimer, Robin Samson, Lea MuehLstein, Joan Shopper, Nick BeLkin, and Rosie Ward. MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL MEETING OF NOVEMBER 2017 AND MATTERS ARISING The minutes were signed as an accurate record. -
A Reflection and Celebration of the Life and Work of Rabbi John D
AN INTRODUCTION TO ‘A REFLECTION AND CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE AND WORK OF RABBI JOHN D. RAYNER’ Alexandra Wright* Rabbi John Rayner was born in Berlin on 30 May 1924. He died in London on 19 September 2005, having made a significant contribution to the cause of Liberal Judaism in Great Britain. As Senior Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue (LJS) for nearly thirty years, and Emeritus for nearly sixteen years until his death, his influence on the congregation which he served was immeasurable. He was the leading exponent of Liberal Judaism in Great Britain, seeking throughout his life to strengthen and reconstruct the Liberal Jewish movement in Britain that had been founded by Claude Montefiore and Lily Montagu and led by Rabbi Israel Mattuck, the LJS’s first rabbi. He was born Hans Sigismund Rahmer, the younger child of Ferdinand and Charlotte Rahmer, and was fifteen when he said goodbye to his parents and boarded what was to be one of the last of the Kindertransport trains to England. He lived, at first, with Will and Muriel Stannard and their sons, and then with Hugh and Elizabeth Wilkinson, both men ordained Christian clergy. In his memoir Before I Forget, published for his family and friends in 1999, he wrote: ‘From them I learnt much about religion at its best, but was never persuaded by Christian doctrine, and remained loyal to Judaism inwardly and, when opportunity occurred, outwardly’ (Rayner 1999: 36). In witnessing a liberal kind of Christianity, particularly at Durham School where he was a pupil, he ‘wished that there was a liberal version of Judaism that had all the virtues of liberal Christianity without the Christianity’ (Ibid.: 37). -
Liberal Judaism Congregations
March/April 2015 VOL. XLII No. 2 Liberal Judaism is a constituent of the World Union for Progressive Judaism www.liberaljudaism.org ljtoday The only response to closed minds is open doors HE LEADERSHIP of Liberal Judaism Rabbi Danny Rich made the same Progressive or Orthodox, than they has taken to the airwaves and strong case in his appearances on ITV’s usually would be. As a chaplain, that Tnewspapers to reassure members, Good Morning Britain, BBC2’s Daily makes me angry. We are dealing with and all Jews, in the wake of reports of Politics Show and Channel 4 News, while real evil. These terrorists are making the rising antisemitism in the UK, fear among Liberal Judaism’s student and young world darker and more frightening. You our community and people planning on adult chaplain Rabbi Leah Jordan was can’t turn a blind eye to that, but also leaving Britain for Israel. featured on ITV News and NBC News you must continue to live your life. This is In a letter to The Guardian, Liberal in America. Liberal leaders were also something we have to fight, both as the Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny quoted extensively in the Jewish press, Jewish community and society. We have Rich, chairman Lucian J Hudson and with Leah, Lucian and Bedfordshire to show that we are not afraid.” Rabbinic Conference chair Rabbi Charley Progressive Community president She concluded: “The simple truth is Baginsky responded to an article in the Geoffrey Ben-Nathan all penning that we live in one of the best places to same paper by reporter Robert Booth commentary pieces for The Jewish News. -
Miss Chidi Akiti
Special Collections: The Montefiore Pamphlets An appraisal by Dr. Annette M. Boeckler, Leo Baeck College Library, 2007 The London Library holds a remarkable collection of Judaica spread over several sections of the library. Within this collection the biggest and most up to date collections are History and Biblical Archaeology. The Jewish History collection (History.Jews) places a good deal of emphasis on books on the History of Ancient Israel (History of biblical Israel), local histories of Jews in various countries or regions and books about the Shoah besides popular general overviews and introductions. The collection contains also books on the history of Jewish Literature (as L. Ginsberg's, Legends of the Jews.) The Topography section (Topography Palestine & Syria) contains excavation reports of major sites in Israel and Jordan but also classical volumes of the Discoveries in the Judean Desert and other items concerning the beginnings of Dead Sea Scrolls research in 1950's and 1960's. Much of the Judaica in other areas of the London library is of highly scholarly value. In its philology section (Philology, Hebrew) the London Library hosts some rare copies of 18th and 19th century Christian philological research on Hebrew, as for example J.D. Michaelis, Supplementa as Lexica Hebraica, Goettingen 1792 or Philippo Ouseel, Introduction in Accentuationem Hebraeorum Prosaicum, Lugdunum 1715. The Religion section contains mostly standard Christian scientific commentaries but it is worth mentioning that it contains the classics of German biblical scholarship of the 19th century in each of its separate sections for the different biblical books. Some areas in this section contain books of special Jewish interest such as the collection about Psalms, which is the biggest collection for any biblical book and contains for example translation of David Kimchi's Commentary. -
Emergent Liberal Judaism and Lily Montagu's
EMERGENT LIBERAL JUDAISM AND LILY MONTAGU’S PROTO-FEMINIST PROJECT: EXPLORING THE PRECURSIVE AND CONCEPTUAL LINKS WITH SECOND AND THIRD-WAVE JEWISH FEMINIST THEOLOGIES Luke Devine* Abstract: Lily Montagu was the founder of Liberal Judaism in England. Because of Montagu’s groundbreaking proto-feminist efforts women in Liberal Judaism can become rabbis, be called up to read the Torah, they are equal in divorce law, they can study the sacred texts, they can form a minyan, and can assume communal and religious positions of authority over men. Montagu was an author, theologian, and social worker; she was the driving force behind the development of Liberal Judaism. However, this biographical overview does not match up with the extant historiography that has instead preferred to focus on the male leaders of the Liberal movement to the extent that Montagu’s intellectual and theological contribution has been marginalized and even completely ignored. In this paper we will siècle Anglo-Jewry that would otherwise be forgotten; even more, we will see in Montagu’s essays, monographs, and novels some of the English foundations of contemporary Jewish feminist theology. In the process, the biography and memory of Lily Montagu will be restored to its rightful place. Lily Montagu was the founder of Anglo-Liberal Judaism, but the extant scholarship has not been forthcoming in acknowledging the extent of her role in the expansion of the movement. In fact, Montagu’s part in the formation and development of Liberal Judaism into an established denomination, and her contribution to the intellectual, spiritual, and theological underpinnings of the movement, have been marginalized, downplayed, and even ignored, with analyses of her involvement even bordering on the derogatory. -
Western Europe
Western Europe Great Britain National Affairs T\wo PIVOTAL DATES IN 1992 were April 9, the date of the general election, which resulted in a close Conservative victory; and September 16 ("Black Wednesday"), when the pound sterling was forced out of the fixed-rate European Monetary System. In April the Tories, led by Prime Minister John Major, returned to power, defying the predictions of the pollsters but with a much reduced overall majority of 21. Neil Kinnock resigned as Labor leader, to be replaced by John Smith. The campaign was marked by successful and sustained Conservative attacks on Labor's alleged tax-and-spend policy. Much was also made of signs of the onset of economic recovery, but this did not materialize, and the continuing high level of interest rates (barely reduced from 10.5 percent to 10 percent in May) squeezed the life out of the faint revival in consumer spending. In fact, unemployment increased by 35,000 in the first 11 months of 1992, and manufacturing output at year-end was almost no higher than in 1979, when the Tories first came to power. The summer was spent trying to reconcile the need of the domestic economy for a looser monetary policy with the constraint imposed by membership in the Euro- pean system. This precarious balance was upset by several events: the Danish rejection of the Maastricht treaty in a referendum on June 2, a further increase in German interest rates in July, and the unilateral devaluation of the Italian lira by 7 percent early in September. The pound sterling meanwhile sank to the bottom of its permitted level against the deutsche mark. -
02-Annual-Report-Final.Pdf
EUROPEAN UNION FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM Annual Report 2015 for the European Assembly at Holiday Inn – Kensington Forum London United Kingdom 17th April 2016 Honorary Officers, Office Holders and Staff 2015 Honorary Life Presidents Ruth Cohen Jeffery Rose President Leslie Bergman Vice-Presidents Alex Dembitz Rabbi Andrew Goldstein Sonja Guentner Rabbi Walter Homolka Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris Jonathan Lewis Félix Mosbacher Gordon Smith Chairman Miriam Kramer Joint Vice-Chairmen Stéphane Beder Michael Reik Honorary Secretary John Cohen Honorary Treasurer David Pollak Board Members Rabbi Danny Rich Rabbi Ruven Bar-Ephraim (Rabbinic Adviser) Rabbi Mark Goldsmith Andrew Hart (Legal Adviser) Leo Hepner z”l Deborah Hofer Rabbi Lea Muehlstein WUPJ Representative Rabbi Joel Oseran Administrator Deborah Grabiner Newsletter Editor Arthur Buchman 2 Contents Page 2 Honorary Officers, Office Holders and Staff 2015 Page 3 Contents Page 5 EUPJ Report Page 7 WUPJ Report Page 8 European Beit Din Page 9 Austria – Or Chadasch Page 10 Belgium – Beth Hillel, Brussels Page 11 Belgium – IJC, Brussels Page 12 Czech Republic – Bejt Simcha, Prague Page 13 Czech Republic – ZLU Hatikvah, Prague Page 14 Denmark – Shir Hatzafon, Copenhagen Page 15 France – AJLT, Toulouse Page 16 France – AJTM, Paris Page 16 France – Communauté Juive Libérale, Dauphiné Grenoble (Beit haOr) Page 16 France – Communauté Juive Libérale, Montpellier Page 16 France – Communauté Juive Libérale, Paris Page 17 France - Kehilat Gesher, Paris Page 18 France- Kehilat Kedem, Montpellier Page 19 France -
RR Programme – FINAL
Ritual Reconstructed End of Project Event 24th November 2015 Ritual Reconstructed is a collaborative project working with film, performance, installation and storytelling to explore the ways in which Jewish people, who identify as LGBTQI, engage in religious and community life. The project is a collaborative community and academic partnership led by Professor Margaret Greenfields of Buckinghamshire New University. Ritual Reconstructed is funded by the Research Councils UK (specifically the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Connected Communities stream). It is a collaborative partnership between Buckinghamshire New University, Liberal Judaism, the University of Portsmouth, and the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University. We have been generously supported in this event by The Jewish Cultural Centre for London (JW3) who are community partners in this project, and who are providing us with the venue for this end of project event. Outputs and Publications/Briefings arising from this Project. In addition to the films and performances today, we are publishing a series of short papers and briefings as part of the Project, These include a theological literature review on LGBTQI people within Jewish literature and text; notes for Jewish communities and Rabbis on fully including and welcoming LGBTQI community members as congregants and incorporating events such as Pride Seders and Transgender Day of Remembrance into the ritual year; Briefings on Faith, Wellbeing and LGBTQI identities and supporting materials to use with the film ‘chapters’. Further materials will be added to the RR archive (available at www.ritualreconstructed.com) in the weeks to come including a report on this event, a short film of tonight's programme; blog pieces and clips of performances and bricolage discussions. -
Claude Montefiore in the Context of Jewish Approaches to Jesus and the Apostle Paul
Claude Montefiore in the Context of Jewish Approaches to Jesus and the Apostle Paul DANIEL R.LANGTON University of Manchester, United Kingdom German and American Jews tend to be the focus of many of the standard treatments of Reform thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Anglo-Jewry is usually regarded as something of an intellectual backwater and any ripples of innovation have tended to be explained in terms of foreign influence. There are exceptions to this rule, however, and Claude Montefiore is one striking example of a radical English Jew. A co-founder of Anglo-Liberal Judaism, Montefiore was a scholar who specialized in New Testament studies to an extent unparalleled by his German or American contemporaries, and who arguably set the agenda for Jewish New Testament scholar ship. This essay considers the ways in which Montefiore viewed the two central figures of Christian thought and the ways in which he utilized their teachings as a means to justify his own brand of Judaism. In particular, it considers in what sense he regarded Jesus' teachings as original and new and how he believed various aspects of Paul's thought could be used to inspire religious Jews. By placing Montefiore's views in the context of other Jewish writers, it is hoped that his innovative contributions to Jewish- Christian understanding and his unique place among Jewish religious leaders will be made clear. Claude Joseph Goldsmid-Montefiore (1858-1938) was an Anglo-Jewish biblical scholar and philanthropist. Together with Lily Montagu, he is usually regarded as the founder of Liberal Judaism in Britain. -
Wij-Articles-Revised-Piety, Tradition and Community in the Thought of Li
Piety, Tradition and Community in the Thought of Lily Montagu: An Anglo-Liberal Jewish Theology of Relation Piety, Tradition and Community in the Thought of Lily Montagu: An Anglo-Liberal Jewish Theology of Relation Daniel R. Langton, University of Manchester, UK Abstract Lily Montagu (1873-1963) was a founding figure of the Anglo-Liberal Jewish Synagogue and, like her co- reformer Claude Montefiore, she had a special interest in Christianity. This article explores the way in which Montagu related to Christianity and Christians in the context of working out her own understanding of authentic Jewish spirituality, that is, a kind of individualistic piety, and in relation to her approach to Jewish religious tradition more generally. For Montagu there was a special relationship between Judaism and Christianity, and this led her to a highly inclusive conception of religious community. Many of her works were written for children or young adults, and include novels, short stories, biblical commentaries, theological reflections, and sermons. It will be suggested that this remarkable range reflects a distinctively feminist approach to a construction of a ‘theology of relation’. Introduction In modern times a few religious thinkers have attempted the controversial and challenging task of defining ‘the other’ in terms that acknowledge what is shared whilst trying to maintain a distinctive identity. Well known Jewish examples include Martin Buber (1878-1965), Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) and Claude Montefiore (1838-1958). All three were innovative thinkers who sought to redefine Jewish religious identity, that is, they wrestled with how to relate their personal, eclectic religious convictions with Jewish tradition; they treated authoritative sacred texts in unfamiliar ways and/or became interested in non-Jewish scriptures; and they tried to reconceptualise what constituted authentic religious experience and community.