June 2015 – Sivan-Tammuz 5775
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Come to the Children’s Service on Saturday, 20 June (Shabbat Korach). The service will be led by the children and will be full of songs, but all are welcome. Parents please note: Cheder that weekend will be on Saturday instead of Sunday, so make sure you do not turn up on Sunday by mistake! The Gan children and their mums learn Israeli dancing at the Cheder’s Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration The Nuremberg Trials and After We recently commemorated the liberation of Auschwitz- Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen 70 years ago and have just celebrated the 70th In This Month’s Highlight anniversary of VE Day, 8 May 1945. View from the Chair ............................3 These events were followed in The Rabbi - Off to Israel ......................3 Germany by the Nuremberg Trials Cheder News ........................................4 of Nazi war criminals. Social Centre News ..............................4 Jubilee Lecture Report .........................5 Do come and join us for a Friday Night Oneg on 19 Living Legacy Mission ........................5 June, following the 6.45 pm service, with a Bring-and- JW3 film and concert ...........................5 Share Supper, when Lawyer Ruth Moshinsky will be CCJ film show......................................6 speaking to us. CCJ Lecture report ...............................6 Ruth writes: “In 1945 after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Social and Personal ..............................7 German hierarchy were brought to trial in Nuremberg by Communal Notices ...............................7 New South London Jewish Community Sivan-Tammuz 5775 Sivan-Tammuz the victors of the war. There were 13 trials which sought to Website ................................................7 judicially denazify Germany. The development of the law Temple Mount Sifting Project .............8 that underpinned these prosecutions continues to this day”. The late Marie Halpern .........................8 Further details from Monica Weil, [email protected] South London Summer Fete ................8 or Barbara Kurtz, [email protected] Parents’ Choir ......................................9 Services ................................................9 Shirei Chagigah ....................................9 Find us on Facebook! Dates for Your Diary .........................10 www.facebook.com/BromleyReformSynagogue Synagogue Contacts ...........................11 or Tweet us @BromleyShul) ... Advertisements ..................................12 June 2015 – BROMLEY REFORM SYNAGOGUE A constituent of the Movement for Reform Judaism 28, Highland Road, BROMLEY, Kent, BR1 4AD Telephone: 020 8460 5460 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.bromleyshul.org.uk (Office - 9.30 am to 12.30 pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays) Minister: Rabbi Jason Holtz 07454 021 892 Synagogue Administrator: Mrs Janet Burlem HONORARY OFFICERS President: David Barnett Vice-Presidents: Norman Goldberg Ronnie Goldberg Zena Goodman Ivor Lask, MBE Dianne Mathews Sally Rosebery Bob Symonds David Zerihan Executive Officers Chairman: Joanna Koenigsberg 020 8309 1061 [email protected] Vice-Chairman: Matthew de Lange 020 8858 6206 [email protected] Secretary: Anna Sedenu 020 8297 5249 [email protected] Treasurer: Sandra Hurley 07770 661 898 [email protected] Senior Warden: Daniel Posner 07866 761 181 [email protected] IN CASE OF EMERGENCY (in the event of a bereavement) Contact Mrs Janet Posner: 020 8650 7521 (Mobile: 07841 373 309) or Stephen Weil: 020 8299 4141 (Mobile: 07764 475209) Editor: Bob Symonds: 020 8402 2197; [email protected] Opinions expressed in “Highlight” are not necessarily the official policy of the Synagogue Tell the Community This cut-out slip is a regular feature in Highlight to enable you to inform the community of any appropriate event - birth, marriage, engagement, illness, bereavement, birthday celebration, examination success etc. Please complete and return to the Editor c/o the Synagogue office. We would like you to know that ............................................................................................ .......................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................... Name .................................................................................. Tel. No. ................................. Copy date for July-August Highlight: Monday 15 June 2 So it’s over for another 5 years. The general election, I mean - View from the Chair t seemed to me rouse enough interest amongst the blan- I have always considered that the Ithat the cam- ket coverage to decipher party views on membership of Beit Or form a superior paign went on for issues around Israel and the Middle East, group – yes this means you – They are far too long. From or even about pay for public servants. kind, clever well informed people. It is the first of Janu- Because of my disinterest, I hadn’t extraordinary what a broad spectrum of ary, it appeared intended to listen to the results, but livelihoods and hobbies is represented. that the BBC found myself doing so after the 10 This year’s Jubilee lecture is a demon- were whipping o’clock news. I stayed up longer than I stration of this – I was so delighted that themselves into a had planned, in fact, vastly amused by it was given by our very own Baron- frenzy about the keen know-it-all journalists desperately ess – Professor Alison Wolf. Her title, election. Sadly, the only effect it had on trying to discredit the exit polls (which “Not Quite Utopia” referred to how the me was to shrink my interest. The more proved remarkably accurate). I’m really status of women in western societies hysterical the reporters and journalists grateful there was a clear win, because I has changed dramatically over about the grew, the more bored I became. I feel I don’t think I could have taken more and past 100 years. As she spoke, it became can’t be alone in this. Many people are more coverage about possible coali- clear that the lives of women are perhaps interested in politics per se, and more are tions – it could have gone on for weeks more disparate than those of men; that interested in governments, policies and (luckily, as we aren’t in Israel, prob- gender and class both play a part in their politicians who have something to say ably not months). The post mortems are status. As happens with the best Jubilee about the immediate issues which affect enormously dull, though. It also means lectures, one left with more questions them. Election campaigns should be a we don’t expect another election during than answers. It was a fantastic, thought- place to focus this attention. the next five years. provoking and home-grown evening. We are so grateful Baroness Wolf could find But 24/7 Westminster-based broad- I don’t know what to learn from this the time to share her work with us. casting is just too much. It is irrelevant – I can’t figure out whether it is I or the to peoples’ lives, and, what is worse, broadcasting media which is out of step. Joanna Koenigsberg, Chairman it masks the things which actually are I know I’m going to enjoy hearing some [email protected] relevant. I am sorry to admit I couldn’t different news. Off to Israel t the end How have these terms evolved within first century. Though Orthodox, he Aof this Jewish tradition? What is the human always believed that Torah study should month, I’ll be responsibility in establishing a just transcend movement barriers and he travelling to society? In a world of growing political succeeded brilliantly at bringing together Israel to take part and religious polarization, do the values Jews of all sorts from around the world in the Rabbinic of “justice and righteousness” lose to learn from one another. After he died Torah Seminar their meaning when they are invoked in 2013, he was posthumously awarded at the Shalom to justify diametrically opposite the Alexander M. Schindler Award to Hartman Institute. positions and actions? When does the World Jewry by the Union for Reform The theme for pursuit of righteousness blur into self- Judaism in North America. The award this summer’s studies is Justice and righteousness? How is the personal is the highest one given by the North Righteousness: Personal Ethics and pursuit of justice different from its American Reform movement. In a National Aspirations. Looking at the two national pursuit? How do [different] Jewish world where we are too often virtues, justice and righteousness, we’ll Jewish communities differ in their given to focusing on our differences be discussing how the two play out on discussion about “justice”? And what are and not on what we can learn from one both a personal and societal level, with the implications of that difference? What another, Rabbi Hartman was exemplary particular attention being placed on the are the calls for justice in Israel and for in building bridges. Though he has Israeli context. While the virtues are World Jewry today? passed away, I still consider myself abstract, their application is not. In the The Hartman Institute is a fascinating fortunate to have learned from him when Jewish tradition, these words function place. Rabbi David Hartman, an he was living and from continuing to strongly in defining proper behaviour. Orthodox Jew, started it in Jerusalem. benefit by taking part in a programme On a macro-level, Israel is faced with He was