The Liberal Jewish Synagogue
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
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. -
Reform Judaism: in 1000 Words Gender
Reform Judaism: In 1000 Words Gender Context One of the distinctive features of Reform Judaism is our unequivocal commitment to gender equality. Or is it? As Rabbi Barbara Borts of Darlington Hebrew Congregation writes, though there are many examples of equality in our movement (such as our exceptional siddur and women in senior rabbinic positions) the journey towards true equality in our communities has been a process of development over many years, and in some ways is not yet complete. Content The male rabbi who was approached to write this section demurred, believing it was inappropriate for him to write about gender issues. Gender, he believed, really meant ‘women.’ This is a natural conclusion. After all, Judaism developed as a patriarchal religion with strict delineations between male Jewish life and female Jewish life: male Judaism was the norm [a Jew and His Judaism] and the woman, a separate category.i Although the idea of gender now encompasses many aspects of sexual identity, for most people, ‘gender’ will mean ‘women’ and we will thus examine past and current thinking about women’s roles in the MRJ. In 1840 West London Synagogue, women’s equality was not part of the founders’ visions. Women sat in the balcony until 1910 (except for the Yamim Nora’im) and the choir was initially all-male, although women would join early on.ii Other founding synagogues discussed participation by women, but there was no consensus about what equality for women entailed, not even through the 1990s and perhaps beyond. The first women rabbis often encountered great opposition and found it difficult to gain employment against male candidates for particular jobs. -
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). -
The WCOMC ( Faith Group Was Formed in 2014
The WCOMC (https://wcomc.org/) Faith Group was formed in 2014 and aims to explore the impact of faith on people’s working lives, both in the City and the wider livery movement, by holding evening events each year and inviting eminent speakers to address relevant topics. The focus of our earlier events was on “Religious Freedom” and the next event relates to the concerns of the Civic City in restoring ‘Trust in the City’ and how Faith might be relevant to this. Subject: Faith in the Livery today: “Rules for the Conduct of Life”. The importance, influence and relevance of this important booklet, which was first published in 1740 as a set of standards for Freemen of the City of London. A copy of the booklet is given to all those men and women who receive the Freedom of the City of London and 2nd edition version, was undertaken by Canon David Parrott of St Lawrence Jewry in 2015: https://www.stlawrencejewry.org.uk/content.php?folder_id=67 This more modern edition can be bought at the St Lawrence Jewry Office or by contacting [email protected] or at the 5th March event (for the special price of £5 per copy). Tuesday 5th March 2019 from 6.30 to 9.00 pm Venue: St Ethelburga’s Centre, 78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG Speaker: The Right Rev Dr Stephen Platten, Chaplain to St. Martin-within-Ludgate. Stephen is at present an honorary Assistant Bishop in the dioceses of London, Newcastle and Southwark, and Chaplain at St. Martin-within-Ludgate in the City of London. -
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. -
Reform Judaism Through the Lens of Its Music
Durham E-Theses MOUTHS FILLED WITH SONG: BRITISH REFORM JUDAISM THROUGH THE LENS OF ITS MUSIC BORTS, BARBARA How to cite: BORTS, BARBARA (2014) MOUTHS FILLED WITH SONG: BRITISH REFORM JUDAISM THROUGH THE LENS OF ITS MUSIC , Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10797/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 MOUTHS FILLED WITH SONG: BRITISH REFORM JUDAISM THROUGH THE LENS OF ITS MUSIC Barbara Borts A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Theology and Religion, Durham University 2014 1 | P a g e ABSTRACT The Movement for Reform Judaism [MRJ] - has been undergoing substantial changes in its style and patterns of worship. The introduction of a new prayer book has been accompanied by a pronounced focus on the music of the various synagogues, as a key element in the re- envisioning of prayer and spirituality in 21st century congregations. -
Leo Baeck College ~»\ Library 2
g IDIZ THE SPIRIT OF ISRAEL MATTUCK This year of 1992, still so young and so cold, and especially this first quarter of it, is a season of anhiversaries. 0n the world stage, it recalls, most notably, what happened 500 years ago in Spain. For it was on 2nd January, 1492, that Ferdinand and Isabella entered Granada and so ended nearly 800 years of Muslim rule in the peninSula. In the same month they received Christopher Columbus’s demands for the voyage which was to take him to the New World. And on 3Lst March they issued the infamous decree of expulsion which sent about 200,000 Jews scurrying across the seas in search of a friendly home: the decree which will be finally and formally rescinded by the Spanish Government on the day of its 500th anniversay this year. Of the refugees, about 10,000 made it to Italy. They included a family called Montefiore who landed at Ancona and later settled in Leghorn, otherwise known as Livorno. In the course of the 18th century they came to England, and some of them were among_ the founders of the West London Synagogue, which dedicated its first house of worship, in Burton Street, 150 years ago, on 27th January, 1842. Claude Montefiore, who grew up in that Congregation, had a brilliant career at Oxford, and there, in 1892, delivered the Hibbert Lectures on "The Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by the Religion of the Ancient Hebrews". It was an event the centenary of which deserves a mention. For by these nine lectures, which, as subsequently published, run to 552 pages, Montefiore established himself as a major Bible scholar and the first Jew in this country to think through the implications of modern Bible scholarship for Judaism. -
THE BETH DIN: Jewish Law in the UK
THE BETH DIN: Jewish Law in the UK The Centre for Social Cohesion THE BETH DIN JEWISH COURTS IN THE UK The Centre for Social Cohesion Clutha House 10 Storey’s Gate London SW1P 3AY Tel: +44 (0)20 7222 8909 Fax: +44 (0)5 601527476 Email: [email protected] www.socialcohesion.co.uk The Centre for Social Cohesion Limited by guarantee. Registered in England and Wales: No. 06609071 2009 THE CENTRE FOR SOCIAL COHESION Contents Executive Summary 1 Introduction 3 Background 4 THE BETH DIN AND THE ARBITRATION ACT (1996) 6 Rules applicable to Arbitration tribunals 7 Arbitration awards 8 Safeguards under the Arbitration Act – 9 Consent Impartiality Enforcement by civil courts Remit of arbitration tribunals Recognition of religious courts 12 THE BETH DIN AS A RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY 13 Religious functions of the Beth Din 13 The Beth Din, Divorce and Family Law – 13 Divorce The Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act 2002 Mediation INTERPRETATIONS OF JEWISH LAW IN THE UK 18 Positions on key issues – 18 Divorce Conversion Jewish status Conclusion 21 Glossary 22 THE BETH DIN: JEWISH LAW IN THE UK 1 Executive Summary What is the Beth Din and what does it do? The Beth Din is a Jewish authority which offers members of the Jewish communities two separate services – civil arbitration and religious rulings. The Beth Din provides civil arbitration as an alternative to court action under the Arbitration Act (1996), which grants all British citizens the right to resolve civil disputes through arbitration. They also provide religious rulings on personal issues of faith which are voluntary, non-binding and limited to an individual‘s private status.