ljtoday
January/February 2011
VOL. XXXVIII No. 1
Liberal Judaism is a constituent of the World Union for Progressive Judaism
As The Liberal Jewish Synagogue approaches the 100th anniversary of its first service, in February, it has unveiled its programme for celebrations throughout 2011 to mark the event. The biggest synagogue in the movement, it sowed the seeds from which many other Liberal communities grew. It was on 4 February 1911 that the scholar and lay preacher Israel Abrahams led the first service at the LJS, at its new synagogue building in Hill Street, Marylebone. The sermon was preached by Claude Montefiore. On 5 February 2011 the LJS’s
Matthew Andrews
One hundred years and going strong senior rabbi, Alexandra Wright, will lead a centenary service at the St John’s Wood synagogue. A centenary concert on 15 May, The Voice of the Cello, will have four distinguished cellists and a soprano performing in a concert that includes cello duos by Handel and operatic arias by Dvorak. The synagogue is producing a souvenir edition of its bulletin this month, examining all aspects of the community’s history. And the new edition of Manna, the quarterly journal of Progressive Judaism, is devoted to marking the synagogue’s first century. LJS centenary, page 5
Communal candle lighting in Brighton (above) brought to an end a Shabbaton to mark Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah’s 10th anniversary at the synagogue. Shenfield (left) also brought the generations together. Elsewhere for Chanukkah, Southgate held a jazz evening and the LJS held an interfaith event, with the assistance of the synagogue’s new interfaith coordinator, Steven Derby, a graduate of the Woolf Institute’s Cambridge Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish Relations. New SeferTorah, page 3
Zionism today: the Jewish perspective The Board of Deputies has published a booklet on Zionism in British Jewry aimed at setting out the Jewish people’s yearning for and attachment to Israel from a historical and theological perspective. Liberal Judaism’s chairman, Lucian J Hudson, was asked by leaders across the Jewish community to edit it and oversee its publication on behalf of the Board. The 32-page booklet, Zionism: a Jewish Communal Response from the UK, is essentially a reply to a document issued in December 2009 by Palestinian Christian theologians. Kairos Palestine, while accepting that Jerusalem is holy to
the city’s three main faiths, does not acknowledge Jews’ national aspirations or their ties to the land of Israel. Kairos – Greek for ‘the right moment’ – was modelled on a document of the same name issued in 1985 by South African theologians calling for resistance to the apartheid regime. The Zionism booklet contains essays by Rabbis Danny Rich, Tony Bayfield (Reform) and Jonathan Wittenberg (Masorti) and leading United Synagogue educator Dan Rickman, with an introduction by Vivian Wineman, president of the Board of Deputies. Lucian Hudson says: ‘There
was a feeling across the movements that in some respects we are seeing a crisis in Jewish–Christian relations. This booklet explains why Judaism and Zionism are inseparable.’ Copies are available from the Montagu Centre. Chairman’s Actions, page 6 Anat Hoffman, page 7
Also in this issue
Harrow & Wembley’s deal 2 Judaism and Justice 9 LJY-Netzer 11
of celebration Page 2 LJ Today
news
January/February 2011
Harrow secures building deal The Progressive community is to share premises with Middlesex New (Reform), with each of the two synagogues preserving its own ethos, identify and affiliation The Harrow & Wembley community is entering into a deal with Middlesex New Synagogue through which the two will share premises. Harrow is to hold its last Shabbat service at its present building on 11 June before entering into the arrangement with its Reform neighbour. Harrow’s premises, at Preston Road, have been its home for more than 60 years. In 2003, the synagogue embarked on a new phase of development, selling two thirds of its existing site and investing in a new building – replacing its previous one, which dated from 1965 – on the remaining third and some adjoining land. Now the new building has also been sold, and a tenancy agreement has been signed with Middlesex New Synagogue, in Bessborough Road, central Harrow. From 12 June all services are to be held at this new home. At Bessborough Road, Harrow & Wembley Progressive Synagogue will have its own dedicated sanctuary, which will be consecrated in a first service on Sunday 12 June. It will also have its own offices at the premises. Middlesex New and Harrow & Wembley will remain separate entities, with Harrow remaining affiliated to Liberal Judaism and Middlesex New to the
People power – a short survey The world is sustained by three things, plus one: by justice, by truth, by peace and by volunteers – something worth remembering the next time someone asks you for a hand. Volunteers put themselves on the line; they need no invitation to get involved. Without their time and work, our synagogues and our wider communities would suffer. Liberal Judaism has set up a volunteers’ task force and it wants to know more about our community’s volunteers: what makes them tick, how they first got involved. All readers are asked to complete a survey at www.surveymonkey.com/s/ljvolunteers to help to ensure that our volunteers are better acknowledged and valued.
Close co-operation: Rabbis Kathleen de Magtige-Middleton and Frank Dabba Smith
Reform movement. Each synagogue will preserve its own ethos and identity. The costs of the building will be shared and it is hoped that the two communities can join together for social and other occasions and so enrich each other. In September 2010, the synagogues successfully merged their cheders. The combined religion school meets at Bessborough Road on Sunday mornings, with Reform and Liberal children being taught side by side. Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith, of Harrow, and Rabbi Kathleen de Magtige-Middleton, of Middlesex New, have co-operated closely with respect to the cheder and its curriculum. There will be many other areas of religious co-operation: next Pesach, for example, Harrow is going to have a joint
communal Seder not only with Middlesex New but also with Ealing Liberal. Adrian Cohen, the chairman of Harrow & Wembley, who with other synagogue members has worked closely with their counterparts at Middlesex New to secure the shared arrangement, says: ‘From the standpoint of vision and strategy for the future, the outlook is very healthy.’ Harrow’s social and cultural groups are to move with the synagogue and continue in its new home. Some, such as the photography and art groups, are expected to attract members of Middlesex New, and vice versa. ‘This should benefit members of both communities,’ Adrian says. Rabbi de Magtige-Middleton speaks of the ‘tremendous goodwill’ that has accompanied all stages of discussion between the synagogues relating to the new arrangements. ‘To be in one building and doing the same thing, as it were, differently, can only add to our mutual respect and understanding,’ she says. Adrian adds: ‘We believe we have the chance to build something new and exciting here, possibly a new template for Progressive Judaism in England – a community centre where there is a choice of services and affiliation, as well as shared activities.’ Reunion, page 8
Suffolk celebrates as founder becomes batmitzvah The Suffolk community has celebrated its first batmitzvah, for founder member Beverley Levy, writes Barry Spivack. Growing up in an orthodox shul in the 1960s, Beverley did not have a batmitzvah as a teenager. She says she ‘really enjoyed’ singing her portion nearly 50 years later, and valued having Rabbi Danny Rich leading the morning service for her ceremony, on 30 October. On the same day, a ceremony of admission to Judaism was held for Rebecca Steiner. For Rebecca, 50, this was the culimination of an interest she had developed over the whole of her adult life. ‘Ever since I was 12 years old I’ve known I wanted to be Jewish,’ she says. It is natural to be a little nervous when appearing before Liberal
Judaism’s Rabbinic Board. Rebecca was due to have her gall bladder removed the following day and says that after being interviewed by three rabbis the surgery was nothing. Looking back on her journey to Judaism, Rebecca pays special tribute to her mentor, Rabbi Janet Burden, who she says was ‘a real star’. The five-year-old Suffolk community is one of the smallest in Britain but is hoping to reach out to the 600 or so Jews who live in the county. It normally holds a service on the last Friday of the month. On 26 March, Rabbi Dr Michael Shire, vice-principal of Leo Baeck College, will lead a Shabbat service and talk about the opportunities the college offers.
news
January/February 2011
Birmingham at 75 ‘true to founding principles’ by Joe Seager At a civic service at Birmingham Progressive Synagogue (BPS) to mark its 75th anniversary, its rabbi, Dr Margaret Jacobi, compared Britain’s current economic difficulties with the depression of the 1930s, when the synagogue was established. The looming prospect of economic hardship and social concerns made it even more important for the synagogue to continue its efforts across religious and cultural boundaries, Rabbi Jacobi said. ‘There will be more poor and dispossessed in Birmingham. The homeless, asylum seekers, chronically ill and unemployed will all need help and support.’
Lucian Hudson, the movement’s chairman, and Rabbi Danny Rich, its chief executive, underlined the importance of upholding traditional values of Judaism while setting the pace for desirable social and ethical change. BPS, Israel and Liberal Judaism had much in common, said Lucian. At their best, they were about creativity, enterprise, a defiant streak and making the most of available resources. Liberal Judaism could make another particular contribution, by accepting and working through acknowledged differences. Rabbi Danny Rich said that, true to its founding principles, the BPS community sought to combine the best of Judaism with the best of modernity and make its contribution to the well-being of the city.
Shenfield parades its scroll The Shenfield, Brentwood and Districts synagogue celebrated its first birthday with the inauguration of its Sefer Torah. Members and friends of the Essex community gathered on 5 December to rejoice in their acquisition. Its purchase is a testament to their commitment, especially in the current difficult economic climate. Local MP Eric Pickles Natasha Radford, chair, holds the new scroll with, from left, joined Rabbi Danny Rich Hiam Nacmias, Rabbi Danny Rich and Louis Feldman and friends from the local and wider community for a procession of the scroll, led by the chair, Chanukkah followed, with festival songs Natasha Radford. A short service about sung by the children of the community.
LJ Today Page 3
2011 national day of celebration Sunday 22 May L’Dor VaDor לדור ודור From Generation to Generation Plans are now well under way for an exciting and inspirational Day of Celebration, on Sunday 22 May at The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John’s Wood, during its centenary year. Following on from the very popular Day of Celebration in Birmingham, in 2009, it will be a great opportunity to meet, talk, sing, learn and eat with other Liberal Jews. The theme of the day is L’Dor VaDor – From Generation to Generation. There will be fun for all the family with a crèche for the under-5s and special programming for children aged five to eight. LJY-Netzer will be offering an activity-packed day for those aged eight to 15. At workshops and speaker sessions, rabbis and presenters from Liberal Judaism, Leo Baeck College and beyond will be covering a range of topics from social action to text, and from history to inclusion and volunteering. There will be plenty of music throughout the day, as well as arts workshops and a tasty bagel lunch. Booking forms will soon be available from the Montagu Centre and will be printed in the March edition of lj today. Cost: £6 per adult; £1 for people aged under 18 or in full-time education. Lunch is £4 if booked in advance or £6 on the day.
Spreading Liberal Judaism from London to Oxford Liberal Judaism is pleased to be associated with an event at this year’s Jewish Book Week. Anat Hoffman, executive director of the Israel Religious Action Centre (IRAC), will discuss the texts that have inspired her and moved her to action. In ‘My Bookshelf, My Country: Understanding Israel through its Writing’, Anat (pictured) will travel from the pages of Amos Oz’s works to Dirshuni, a collection of
contemporary midrashim by Israeli women, which offers a fresh look at ancient texts. Jewish Book Week 2011 takes place from 26 February to 6 March. The event with Anat Hoffman, chaired by Rabbi Danny Rich, is on Sunday 27 February at 5pm at the Royal National Hotel,
Bedford Way, WC1. Tickets are available online at www.jewishbookweek.com or by telephoning 0844 8472274. In this edition of lj today, Anat sets out IRAC’s ambitious aims for this year and beyond. Liberal Judaism will also be a sponsor for the second year running of the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival, which takes place from 2 to 10 April 2011. Judaism and culture, page 6 Fighting for hope, page 7
Page 4 LJ Today
finance
January/February 2011
the ljs centenary
January/February 2011
A brief tour of Liberal Judaism’s finances
Let the celebrations begin...
As the national movement reaches the end of another 12-month accounting period, treasurer David Pelham gives an overview of income and expenditure
The Liberal Jewish Synagogue Voice of the Cello concert in May will have among its performers four distinguished cellists, all of whom have played Bruch’s setting of Kol Nidre for the synagogue’s Kol Nidre services. The cellists, Raphael Wallfisch, John Heley, Andrea Hess and Gemma Rosefield, and soprano Ilona Domnich will perform a programme which
Liberal Judaism operates a £1.35 million budget – about the equivalent in money terms of a small primary school. Its income comes from many sources; indeed, communities’ affiliation fees account for only 31 per cent of the £1.35 million total. Of the balance, 54 per cent comes from Liberal Judaism-generated income, including payments for funerals and charges made for youth activities, and 11 per cent from Patrons (£150,000). We have helped a few communities when they have had cash flow difficulties and we expect repayments of £20,000 (2010) and £30,000 (2011); others will repay when they can. Now let me explain a bit about the expenditure. It is sometimes difficult to classify all the many ways we help communities and promote Liberal Judaism to the wider world. Liberal Judaism-generated income (including funerals and charges made for youth activities) took 39 per cent of our expenditure; 10 per cent went to Leo Baeck College (£141,000); and the chief executive’s office together with accounting and finance totalled 18 per cent. Education projects, university chaplaincy, public relations, communications (including the new website), and lj today cost 8.5 per cent. Five and a half per cent went on community development. Montagu Centre overheads, including travel, were 8 per cent. Percentages are all very well but how do you calculate the benefit to every
include 200 Chanukkah parcels for Liberal Jewish university students (see page 11). Patrons also funded High Holy Days services at four new congregations (Wessex, Crouch End, North Hertfordshire and Shenfield) and gave bursaries for more young people than ever to take part in LJY-Netzer schemes. These and other Patron-inspired projects accounted for 10 per cent of expenditure. Finally, down to micro-economics: in November, chief executive Rabbi Income 2010 Danny Rich visited communities in Other generated Grants received £44k income £103k Eastbourne, Nottingham, Manchester and East Anglia; he ran Employment Community Tribunal training on religious diversity assessment fees Patrons £150k £267k in Northampton and he recorded Radio 4’s Beyond Belief (hope you heard it) in Youth activity £265k Manchester. His and everyone else’s (including volunteers’) travel cost Funerals and Liberal Judaism £10,600 during 2010 cemetery £363k (0.8 per cent of expenditure). Liberal Judaism’s finances are subject to the same scrutiny as any other responsible organisation; we do budgets, we do management accounts Expenditure 2010 Education, Cemetery loan and we are pretty accurate, although Comms inc PR & repayment £20k chaplaincy £60k lj today £54k some things are unpredictable, for Community Youth activities development instance the number of people who £295k £75k Montagu Centre will die in any one year. overheads £109k Our accounts are in the public Other expenses Funerals and £115k domain and are available via the cemetery £240k Charity Commission or from your Chief executive's office £121k Senior operations Liberal Judaism Council member. Leo Baeck College staff, accounts and £141k Email montagu@liberaljudaism.org finance £122k and we will let you know who your member is.
Next Patrons’ dinner at Lords
Two Liberal Jews become peers
The Council of Patrons annual dinner 2011 will be held on Tuesday 5 April at the House of Lords. Sir Victor Blank, the former chairman of Lloyds Bank, spoke at the Patrons’ tenth annual dinner in 2010. If you would like information about Liberal Judaism’s Council of Patrons please contact Rabbi Danny Rich by emailing d.rich@liberaljudaism.org or telephoning 020 7631 9835.
community of LJY-Netzer’s work with young people, every Leo Baeck-trained rabbi’s work with individuals and the community at large, the advice available from Montagu Centre staff on topics from conversion to publications via life cycle events (such as where to find a mohel)? Much of what we do is only possible thanks to the generosity of our Patrons. Some of this year’s Patrons’ projects
Two Liberal Jews have been elevated to the House of Lords. Stanley Fink, who with his wife, Barbara, is an active member of Northwood and Pinner Synagogue, has become a life peer. A donor to various charitable causes, he has chaired Liberal Judaism’s Council of Patrons since its inception in 2004. A joint treasurer of the Conservative party, Lord Fink was formerly chief executive of the Man Group hedge fund. He said of his peerage:’It is a tremendous
honour and one that I hope to live up to.’ Michael Grade, a member of The Liberal Jewish Synaogue, also becomes a Conservative peer. Lord Grade is a former chief executive of Channel 4, and a former ITV and BBC chairman. He was guest speaker at Liberal Judaism’s Patrons’ dinner in 2006. Michael Grade (right) and Stanley Fink
LJ Today Page 5
During a year of events to mark its centenary, the Liberal Jewish Synagogue will be holding a study day, an Any Questions session and an interfaith walk
A service of rededication at the LJS in 1951, following war damage repairs
includes Bruch’s Kol Nidre; Meditation Hebraique and From Jewish Life by Bloch; cello duos by Handel and Menotti; and operatic arias by Dvorak, Korngold and Lehar. The concert is on Sunday 15 May at 7.30pm; full details are at www.ljscello. com and booking is now open. The concert is aid of The LJS Centenary Appeal and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. A week later, on 22 May, the synagogue will host Liberal Judaism’s Day of Celebration, and on 18 June there will be a Family Service, chavurah lunch and Religion School Pageant, with art and drama. Other events are: a Mid-Summer dance on 25 June, a day conference on 4 July, in conjunction with Leo Baeck College, to recall and honour the life and work of Rabbi John Rayner, a Social Action InterFaith Walk on 10 July, a Language-aThon on 11 September, an Any Questions session on 20 November and a Shabbaton on 3 December. Also for its centenary, the synagogue is
publishing book of members’ recollections. About 60 people have been interviewed for it and a further 20 or more have contributed stories and anecdotes. The editors are Pam Fox, Carolyn Simon and Vivien Rose. Pam, who has been researching and writing parts one and two of the book, says: ‘We have also used a variety of other sources such as diaries, letters, memoirs, newsletters.’ A Friend of the synagogue, whose husband, Michael Hart, has been deeply involved with the community all his life, Pam has also contributed the central essay to the current edition of the journal Manna, copies of which are being sent to members of the LJS. The essay is called ‘Continuity, Change and Consistency: the history of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, 1911-2011’. Of her work on the book, which is due for publication in October, Pam says: ‘It’s been a real voyage of discovery and I’ve loved every moment of it, but especially sitting talking to people about their memories.’
Our journey to Judaism – from Ivory Coast A family of six from Thornton Heath, south London, became Jewish on the same day, and were possibly the largest group ever to have appeared before the same session of the Rabbinic Board. An admission ceremony for Sev and Justine Brohiri and their children, Joshua, 17, Caleb, 13, Yerusha, four, and five-month-old Jochanan, pictured, of South London Liberal Synagogue (SLLS), was held on 4 September. Growing up on the west coast of the Ivory Coast, Sev and Justine would hear Jewish names – Yaakov and Zion – and stories about a tribe of God. Those memories sowed the seeds of a personal quest to find out more about the religion. Meeting in Britain ten years ago – each with a son from a previous marriage – the couple were both brought up as Christians. But it felt natural to have Jewish friends, and Sev in particular became interested in finding out more about Jewish practice. ‘I did my own research, from library after library,’ he says. Eventually, after making contact with several rabbis, and with teaching
and encouragement from his friend Patrick Cohen Ben Ballot, he found SLLS. When the couple finished their conversion process, the movement also gained possibly its only African hip-hop rapper: Sev performed at South London’s 80th anniversary celebrations last year, singing his version of the Sh’ma.
Sev and Justine Brohiri with their children Joshua, Caleb, Yerusha and Jochanan
Their admission ceremony was ‘the best day of my life’, says Sev – before glancing at his wife and new baby and modifying that, ‘one of the best days of my life’. Yerusha and Jochanan are being brought up Jewish, but how did two teenagers learn and adjust? ‘We explained to Joshua and Caleb why we were taking that path and they were happy,’ Justine says. ‘It was a blessing.’ Joshua, a Kabbalat Torah graduate, is now an assistant teacher at the cheder, and Caleb has joined the KT programme. A sadness for both parents is that their wider families have not accepted their new religion. But Judaism will continue to inform the Brohiris’ lives, and inspire Sev’s music. A ‘RevoluZionist’, he sings in French with energy and puns under the name Sev Lesaved: his new single is Matière Grace. They have not yet visited Israel – ‘only in spirit’ – but hope to soon. Most of all, Sev says, as a ben Avraham, he wants to keep the Covenant with God, and pass the beliefs and values of Judaism to the next generation. Beatrice Sayers
Page 6 LJ Today
chairman’s actions
Culture helps us to grow and conntect Liberal Jews can change the world through creativity and courage, says Lucian J Hudson The current theme of my talks to communities is ‘influencing for good’. If the 20th century was about the clash of power, this century will undoubtedly be about the exercise of power, but also the mingling of influence. In our growing inter-dependence, where more of our greatest challenges will have to be tackled collaboratively, we need to learn not only how to influence but to be influenced, without losing integrity or impact. Despite our relatively small numbers, as Jews, particularly as Liberal Jews, we can change the world through our creativity and courage. David’s use of the sling-shot when he defeated Goliath serves as great inspiration. Whenever I face difficult odds, I think, ‘sling-shot!’. Depending on the circumstances, we can choose cooperation or combat. But it is the combination of creativity and courage that transforms our prospects. In Rabbi Danny Rich’s elegant phrase, we can be constructive irritants to the mainstream. But we can influence the mainstream – regardless of our numbers – if our ideas are strong enough and we successfully engage. Culture is a way we can most effectively connect with Jewish and other communities. Liberal Judaism is building its presence at both Jewish and mainstream cultural events. We are sponsoring the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival and supporting the Jewish Book Fair. Culture celebrates the joy of creation, and provides a tangible way to access the potential for good in the world. Whatever form it takes, it can shock or calm us; it can make us cry or laugh. At its best it produces an inner change in us that enables us to grow and look forward. Above all, it connects in ways that are unforeseen and generates possibilities. In a world fixated on what it can know and control, it frees us to trust in a beneficent reality. One of the most moving theatre productions last year was the show Not
By Bread Alone. The Israeli company Nalaga’at (Hebrew for ‘do touch’) – the only deaf-blind theatre company in the world – performed last summer at the Arts Depot in North Finchley. In the setting of a bakery, the cast of 11, who are all deaf-blind, make, bake and break bread onstage. The play opens with the actors kneading dough as they start to share their stories. In the course of the play, the bread rises and is baked. At the end, the actors invite the audience on stage to eat it, and meet them. At the beginning of the evening, I was feeling ill at ease, uncomprehending of what it must be like to be so deprived of sight and sound. But I emerged inspired by the triumph of the human spirit and the gift of storytelling, and shared in the joy that the actors effortlessly exuded. I communicated by
I communicated by touch with one of the actors and his touch is now more memorable than many of the things I have seen and heard touch with one of the actors, and his touch is now more memorable than many of the things that I have seen and heard. Creativity teaches us that enough is often plenty. ‘Influencing for good’ means that if we seek to influence, it must be for the good of the other, and that the changes we seek make a genuine difference. As a movement, we aspire to be both ethical and effective, so it cannot be enough to feel good without also trying to make a difference. This encourages us to be practical as well as principled. This means being different, and recognising and valuing difference. Culture opens our senses to different perspectives and different lives. It takes the world as it is, yet finds ways to liberate the potential inherent in us all. If we see the majesty of what makes a person fully human, we must continue to push the boundaries of equality and inclusion, and celebrate the diversity of culture.
Lucian J Hudson is the chairman of Liberal Judaism l.hudson@liberaljudaism.org
January/February 2011
Liberals join Council of Imams and Rabbis Rabbi Danny Rich, Liberal Judaism’s chief executive, and Alexandra Wright, senior rabbi at the LJS, are part of a group of 14 leading Muslim and Jewish clerics in London who have come together in an initiative of the Joseph Interfaith Foundation. Members of the Council of Imams and Rabbis hope to benefit from each other’s counsel on matters of community cohesion. As a theological and intellectual think tank, the council will disseminate its views and decisions to members’ communities and to the government, where appropriate. The group has been meeting regularly in private for a year and had an official launch in November at the House of Lords. The five other rabbis are senior rabbis of Orthodox, Reform and Masorti synagogues and the imams are senior leaders of Sunni and Shi’a communities.
Montagu Centre roles enhanced Rabbi Danny Rich has been awarded a new five-year contract as the chief executive of Liberal Judaism. The management team at the Montagu Centre has also been reorganised to allow Rabbi Rich, who took office in 2005, more time for writing and public speaking. Shelley Shocolinsky-Dwyer becomes operations director, and Yael Shotts becomes services manager. In other staff news, LJY-Netzer boger (graduate) Sam Grant is the new social action co-ordinator, working with Tim Bergman. Tim and Sam can be contacted on socialaction@liberaljudaism.org. Sam is based in Leeds, where he is in his final year of a degree in philosophy.
I’m Jewish, my partner isn’t This annual seminar for mixed-faith couples is an opportunity to talk about issues you may face. It is on 16 January, 2.30pm-5.45pm at the Sternberg Centre, Finchley, and is led by Sheila KingLassman and Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain. For members of Liberal or Reform synagogues; charge – £5; telephone 01628 671058, email rabromain@aol.com or just turn up on the day.
israel
January/February 2011
LJ Today Page 7
We have to fight for hope Anat Hoffman says her organisation’s struggle is for nothing less than Israel’s soul Shalom, ani nosa’at (Bye, I’m getting out of here) – these words, from a song by Chanoch Levin, have for Israelis just one association: London, one of their favourite foreign travel destinations. In London, Levin, who is also one of Israel’s top playwrights, details the city’s attractions: London has more films London has good music London has excellent television So despair is easier to bear. What Israelis yearn for is to make their despair more comfortable. The inhabitants of a country whose national anthem is Hatikvah, The Hope, travel to London to escape their despair. Why are they immersed in despair? Is Israel not a state that can be blessed in her achievements and believe in her future? Something is rotten in the State of Israel. Like Hamlet, many Israelis have criticisms; but they do not believe in their power to change the face of society. Many do not vote in elections as they feel that there is no one worth voting for. Those who show resourcefulness, determination and an ability to adapt to and improvise in their adoptive countries (some one million Israelis live abroad) turn passive, indifferent and despairing in their own country. There is a growing feeling that the really talented people in Israeli society
With our own elbow grease we will erase the ‘death to Arabs’ graffiti find their place in business, culture, technology and science. Only a few enter the army or the rabbinate; but these are the training grounds for society’s dominant powers. As a result, the agenda in the Knesset is determined by former generals and (male Orthodox) rabbis. In the absence of a critical civil leadership, committed to human rights and social justice, Israelis go in on themselves, keeping their own house in order. The duty of a radical religious movement like ours is to take Israelis out of their state of comfortable despair and to awaken in them the belief that they have the power to change – and that this is their moral, religious and historical duty. We have to nag these desperate Israelis, especially the young ones, and
enable them to get to work changing the face of Israeli society. Like the pioneers who drained the swamps, ploughed the land, planted and built the young state, so are we preparing the ground and training the hearts for the awakening of the Israeli masses. We are pioneers who are no less photogenic than those in the Zionist archives, and we are filled no less than they with a sense of historical mission. In the coming years we hope to train young activists through our Letaken (Repair) programme. We will teach boys and girls from different backgrounds how to conduct serious and thorough debate on equality, social justice
and tolerance. Our hope is that we will nurture groups of young people who can be mobilised – for instance, to distribute a petition for a protest vigil. We also want to challenge the adults. As part of our fight to end sex segregation of public spaces, we want to recruit women and men to our Freedom Riders project. We will ask them to board buses on which women are forced to sit at the back, to fill in forms and report what really happens when a woman refuses. The reports will form the basis of our ongoing legal battles against religiously motivated discrimination against women. We are leaders in the Coalition Against Racism, a group of more than 20 organisations working together – Jewish and Arab Israelis in the struggle against racism. With our own elbow grease we will erase the ‘death to Arabs’ graffiti. We will analyse for our joint project racist publications that were compiled by rabbis (of all people) who carry government positions, such as the Chief Rabbi of Tzfat, Shmuel Eliyahu. His hurtful, inflammatory messages, such as his demands that no Jews rent out flats in the city to Arab nursing students, are tearing the delicate tissue of the Arab minority’s relationship with the Jewish majority in Israel. Recently we omitted from his name the title rabbi: our appeal against him before the Attorney General refers to Mr Shmuel Eliyahu. The fact that a Jewish religious movement is at the forefront of the anti-racism struggle in Israel is an education for every Jew or Arab who thinks that Judaism equals racism.
Another important front in which we should encourage public interest is conversion and converts. New immigrants in Israel, and especially those from the Former Soviet Union, are a rising political force and are the only minority group that is over-represented in the Knesset. We have to make them our allies in the struggle for recognition of Reform and Conservative conversions. In Israel, there is a system for the allocation of funds for religious services. The prime beneficiaries are the Orthodox establishments. A large sector of Israeli society would be likely to choose non-Orthodox services but these are not officially recognised as Judaism and so do not benefit from state funding. IRAC has been fighting in the Israeli Supreme Court for years to gain recognition and equal funding for Reform and Conservative Judaism in Israel. Now we must unite the taxpayers who want pluralism into a force that demands recognition; recognition for our rabbis, synagogues and schools. We have the legal and moral right to demand equality and transparency in the allocation of state funds to religious institutions. We have to back up the legal struggle with pressure from the public in Israel and abroad. Our movement can and should speak with a clear and loud voice of hope. No struggle is more worthwhile than that for the soul and the character of the state of
What are Israel’s values – tolerance and equality or introversion and racism? Israel. What are the state’s Jewish values? Are they values of tolerance, equality and justice or ghosts of introversion, xenophobia and racism? As we sing in Hatikvah, kol od balevav nefesh yehudi homia (as long as in the heart a Jewish soul still yearns) we have to fight for a new hope for Israel: ‘As a mother comforts her child so I will comfort you; You shall find comfort in Jerusalem’ (Isaiah 66:13). With one arm we must embrace Israel with all our might and with the other we must push out the indifference, alienation, and despair.
Anat Hoffman is executive director of the Israel Religious Action Centre of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism
Page 8 LJ Today
January/February 2011
Synagogues around the movement will be commemorating national Holocaust Memorial Day, Thursday 27 January 2011, with events on or near that date. The theme of the day is Untold Stories. The idea is that by planning or taking part in events we can honour the memory of those affected by genocide and help to share some of the ‘untold stories’, millions of which we will never know. Northwood’s annual HMD event will be held from 24 to 27 January. Over four days, the Liberal synagogue, in partnership with Northwood (United) Synagogue, will host more than 2,000 local students aged 13 and above at three venues. It will also provide workshops for sixth-form pupils. This will be the tenth annual Northwood Holocaust Memorial Day Event, and the organisers will for the first time be working with professional Holocaust educators from the Jewish Museum. Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue’s Etz Chayim gallery will be
showing ‘Memories’, described as ‘a remarkable exhibition of paintings and words’, by Maria Tudosa. Maria, who lives in Northwood, is a Catholic. She was brought up in a small town in Romania, which had a vibrant Jewish community. Life was idyllic for all until the outbreak of the war. Most of Maria’s friends and neighbours were Jewish and were killed. Her art reflects this period. The exhibition runs from 18 January to 13 February. Kingston Liberal Synagogue will be running its fifth annual HMD event in January, over five days. Nearly 1,000 children from seven schools as well as a group of 25 PGCE students from Roehampton University are due to take part in seminars with a survivor and refugees. The event is run in conjunction with Kingston and Surbiton District Synagogue (United). Liberal Judaism’s Shenfield community is joining with Christian Friends of Israel (Essex) to organise a two-day exhibition, Heroines of the Holocaust, at the Council Offices in Brentwood and at Shenfield High School. At 7pm on 29 January there will be a Meeting of Commemoration, with a guest speaker, Kindertransport survivor Otto Deutsch, and a short film, The Children who Cheated the Nazis.
Sixty years in Leicestershire To celebrate its 60th anniversary, the Leicestershire community held a special weekend of services in the autumn, with the involvement of its visiting rabbis. Rabbi Irit Shillor, the rabbi at Harlow, led the Friday evening service on 15 October and Rabbi Harry Jacobi gave the sermon. The following morning, Rabbi Michael Standfield led the service and Rabbi Danny Rich delivered the sermon. The Shabbat morning service was also
attended by Dr Amanda Grant, deputy chair of Liberal Judaism, and visiting dignitaries. To mark the anniversary of the community, whose synagogue is a Victorian former primary school in the Clarendon Park area of Leicester, an apple tree was planted in the building’s garden. It is hoped that in due course the tree might provide apples for the community at Rosh Hashanah.
Could you take charge of lj today? Liberal Judaism is looking for a talented, multi-skilled editor for its bimonthly magazine After more than six years in the role, the editor of lj today is planning to step down and we are looking for a replacement. Applicants will be confident, experienced writers, also able to commission and sub-edit copy. The successful candidate will manage the content, layout and production of six editions of lj today each year. This a freelance position with a set fee per edition. To apply, please send your CV, a sample of your writing/editing work and a short supporting statement to: Shelley Shocolinsky-Dwyer, Operations Director, Liberal Judaism, The Montagu Centre, 21 Maple Street, London, W1T 4BE, Tel: 020 7631 9831, shelley@liberaljudaism.org. Closing date: 31 January
East Anglia proud to host Shabbaton In November the Progressive Jewish Community of East Anglia (based in Norwich) hosted a Communities’ Shabbaton, writes Byron Simmonds. Sponsored by the Liberal and Reform movements and Leo Baeck College’s Department for Jewish Education (DJE), the shabbaton is an opportunity for small communities to share their experiences. The Norwich Shabbaton, organised by Debi Penhey, DJE’s Communities’ Consultant, was a full day, with sessions looking at the particular challenges facing small communities: how to create a welcoming community given often very limited resources; and how to encourage the active involvement of members, so important when numbers are small and geographically dispersed. The day took in a ‘Torah breakfast’, a creative Shabbat service and a walking tour of Jewish Norwich and ended with havdallah in the three-storey, half-timbered medieval courtyard of the King of Hearts Centre. The courtyard, open to a starry night sky, was the perfect place to end a perfect day.
Harrow reunion Tribute to the late Rabbi Lawrence Rigal was paid by many of his former youth group members at a reunion weekend of what had, in the 1950s, been the Wembley Liberal Synagogue Senior and Junior youth groups, writes Rosita Rosenberg. Rabbi Rigal had led these groups at the then recently established synagogue, now Harrow and Wembley Progressive. Forty-six people attended the eighth residential reunion in October, this time held just outside Norwich. The weekend included a boat trip on the Norfolk Broads and a walking tour of Norwich.
New website South London Liberal Synagogue has a new website, including a new logo and a blog by Rabbi Janet Darley, at its usual web address: www.southlondon.org.
Quiz night Bedfordshire Progressive Synagogue held a quiz night in October that raised £350 for Keech Hospice Care.
books
January/February 2011
LJ Today Page 9
So, this is a ‘self-hating Jew’ BEING JEWISH AND DOING JUSTICE: Bringing Argument to Life, by Brian Klug Vallentine Mitchell, £40 ISBN: 9780853039730 Reviewed by ELIZABETH TIKVAH SARAH It is hard to do justice, if you’ll forgive the pun, to this important and complex book. The subtitle, ‘bringing argument to life’, is both an expression of how Brian Klug inhabits the pages with his own life and concerns – and a statement about the nature of Judaism, which is articulated in different ways throughout this anthology of his lectures and writings, spanning 26 years. And so, informing the reader in the introduction that his book constitutes ‘chapters from my life’ (p.2), he writes: ‘The topics that engage me in argument and embroil me in controversy have lain across my path where I could not ignore them’ (ibid.). And so, in his conclusion, he captures the spirit of Judaism as he sees it: ‘Judaism is a configured space; it is an arena of argument, not a body of doctrine. No one speaks for Judaism – except every Jew’ (p.361). And so, Brian Klug challenges every Jew to ‘bring argument to life’, and offers his own particular perspective. A Jew,
Topics that matter deeply to him include those of ‘Jewish’ concern and those that intersect particular and universal values steeped in Jewish sources, who was educated throughout childhood at a Jewish school, and a philosopher, trained to construct, dissect and analyse arguments, he brings his passionate engagement as a Jew and his brilliant analytical mind to bear on topics that matter deeply to him. These include, both those that are of obviously ‘Jewish’ concern – Zionism, Israel, anti-Semitism, the nature of the Jewish people, Jewish identity – and those that intersect particular and universal issues: ethnicity, race, what it is to be human, the rights of animals, and the rights of children. Significantly, as he investigates the meaning of the particular and the universal throughout his book, Klug does not regard these two dimensions in binary, oppositional terms. Right at the
beginning, in the introduction, he addresses questions that might be put by ‘someone’ about the very purpose of the book – and his response gets to the heart of his whole enterprise (pp.4-5):
Why not say that doing justice lies at the heart of being human? Why Jewish?’ Well, because Jewish is what I am. ‘But are you not both – Jewish and human?’ There is no ‘both’ about it – not if this means adding one to the other, nor if this means regarding the first as part of the second. Nor does ‘Jewish’ trump ‘human’: it would be as gross a mistake to imagine this book subordinates ‘human’ to ‘Jewish’ as to think of it as a Pilgrim’s progress from the narrowly particular (Jewish) to the broader universal (human)… it is a mistake because there is more to being Jewish than being Jewish. What does he mean? Klug explores the ‘more’ in many different ways throughout his book. What he says in the prologue, when he interrogates the meaning of ‘the people of God’, sets the scene (p.15):
So, that’s who Jews are: a people with an attitude!... Not just one attitude but three: aspiration, the continual striving to be an exemplary people; atonement, the sorrowful acknowledgement of repeated and abject failure; and hope, not just for ourselves but for the whole of creation: the stubborn belief in the light at the end of the tunnel that will wipe away all the tears of history from the anguished and wrinkled face of the earth. It is not so much a stance as a step or dance: put on the spot we shift from one position to the other, from aspiration to atonement to hope, and back again: constantly, faithfully, religiously. This, our style, our ritual, is our raison d’être. Thus we take shape. Thus we loom in the dark: part light, part mirror, to the nations. For Klug, it is impossible to separate being Jewish from being in the world – or rather, it is possible: both Jews and non-Jews, for a variety of entangled reasons, throughout history, and during
the present day, seem determined to either take the Jews out of the world or the world out of the Jews – but what they conjure up is something other than ‘being Jewish’. And so, being Jewish means doing justice, in a realm which is ‘wider than the sphere of human relations’ (p.4), in every place and in every context. And
For Klug, it is impossible to separate being Jewish from being in the world... without conjuring up something other than ‘being Jewish’ Klug demonstrates that it means more than doing justice. It means living justice: ‘[t]he word [justice] has a life of its own. I prefer to allow its meaning, like the thing itself, to ‘well up like water’, in the phrase of Amos (Am. 5:24), and to draw on that well when faced with questions of right and wrong’ (ibid.). I have only scratched the surface: you must read the book. And when you do, remember: the author is one of those whom some other Jews have labelled a ‘self-hating Jew’. Go figure.
Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah is the rabbi at Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue Dr Brian Klug will be giving the Aubrey Milstein Lecture at the synagogue on 6 February at 3pm. Admission is free
Page 10 LJ Today
youth
January/February 2011
January/February 2011
Spotlight on BKY Judah Passow
Beit Klal Yisrael – a Liberal synagogue? Yes, though it’s a relatively new Liberal community, having decided to affiliate in 2004. In 2011, however, it will be celebrating its 21st birthday. How did it start? The founders were a group of religious and secular lesbian feminists who were determined to create a Jewish community that welcomed and celebrated lesbian and gay life. Over the years, this welcome has been extended to all Jews, but particularly to those who feel distanced or estranged from facets of contemporary Jewish life. Who are its members now? It is a community that is alternative in a thoroughgoing sense. It is for those who do not think of themselves as formally religious but who at the same time implicitly see themselves as embedded in Jewish forms of thinking, being and doing; hence Beit Klal Yisrael (‘house of all Israel’). The congregation also continues to celebrate the presence of Jewish women who want to work out an independent and challenging relation, as women, to Judaism and being Jewish. How did it start? Thanks to the determination of its founder, Rabbi Sheila Shulman, and supporters. Rabbi Shulman, an inspirational teacher, retired in 2007 from the daily demands of the community that she led for nearly 20 years. In 2009, BKY employed Rabbi Judith Rosen-Berry, a graduate of Leo Baeck College, to lead the community in partnership with its council and established lay leadership. Where does it meet? In the Unitarian Church, Notting Hill Gate, west London, five minutes’ walk from Notting Hill tube (on the Central line). When are services held? On the first and third Fridays of the month for a kabbalat Shabbat service (at 7pm)
BKY’s current and founding rabbis Judith Rosen-Berry (left) and Sheila Shulman at Rosh Hashanah 2010
and on the second and fourth Saturdays at 10.30am for a ‘Torah discussion service’. After kiddush, there is a shared supper or lunch. The community also celebrates the major festivals, finding unusual and creative ways of doing so. This year it will be holding its second ‘completely rubbish’ Tu B’shvat seder, focusing on recycling and the environment. What else is on offer? A cultural programme, with speakers giving talks and presentations on a rich variety of topics, the culmination of which is the Hidden Talents evening, an annual event inspired and performed by those with musical, theatrical and poetic gifts. What about education? At the moment BKY has three well-attended courses: BEING jew(ishah) – discussing Jewish identity, a de/constructed God and postmodern halachah – an Access to Judaism course, and a course called Reading Talmud/ Reading Levinas. Rabbi Rosen-Berry (right) and Marilyn Herman on a protest march, and (left) Tony Fagin’s barmitzvah
What else do members get involved in? During the past year they have taken part in the Pride festivities, the International Women’s Day March, pre-Copenhagen Climate Change protest, an anti-Fascist, anti-EDL (English Defence League) rally and the women’s Reclaim the Night rally. How does BKY sum itself up? As a thoughtful Jewish community which is both ‘alternative’ and Liberal – committed not only to debating and discussing what the relationship between ‘alternative’ and Liberal might mean today, but to living it. It invites all to come and visit. How do I find out more? See www.bky.org.uk.
LJ Today Page 11
LJY-Netzer is Liberal Judaism’s Zionist youth movement. It gives young people the opportunity to develop a strong Progressive Jewish identity, make lasting friendships and have loads of fun
Half-term adventure Around the means full-time fun univers-ities Adam Francies previews LJY-Netzer’s spring in 28 days! and summer events and invites all to join in While 2010 was a fantastic year for LJY-Netzer, we hope 2011 is going to be even better still. All the youth movement workers are really excited about our February adventure weekends. There are events for Plagim (school years 3-6), Nechalim (years 7-8) and Yamim (years 9-10), who will be going on a weekend trip to Dublin. For Machaneh Aviv (Spring Camp), we are again returning to Cottesmore School in West Sussex for six days of LJY-Netzer-filled activities, learning, prayer and fun! Machaneh Aviv, the second biggest event of our calendar, is a fantastic opportunity to find out for yourself what Too many chefs?! Making pizza at the Plagim October Weekend
camp is like. Here’s where it’s easy to meet up with old friends or make new ones. Looking further ahead, Machaneh Kadimah, our two-week summer camp and the culmination of the LJY-Netzer year, will also be at Cottesmore. As it will be our fourth summer there it feels very much like LJY-Netzer’s home. All parents on LJY-Netzer’s mailing list should have received a colour flyer about these events and more in the post. If you’re not on the mailing list or haven’t received yours, or if you’ve any questions, please don’t hesistate to contact Adam, Josh, Robin or Yszi at the Montagu Centre. Contact emails and our phone number are at the foot of the page. We hope everyone has had a fantastic 2010 and we look forward to seeing LJY-Netzerniks, both new and old, in 2011!
Upcoming Events 18-20 FEBRUARY Dublin Weekend Yamim (school years 9-10) 21-23 FEBRUARY Hadracha Seminar Galim Gimel (year 13) 25-27 FEBRUARY Half-term Adventure Weekends Plagim (school years 3-6) Nechalim (years 7-8)
13-18 APRIL Machaneh Aviv (Spring Camp) LJY-Netzer’s annual five-night experience for Plagim, Nechalim and Yamim – school years 3-10) 3-5 JUNE Hiking Weekends For Yamim (school years 9-10) and Galim (school year 13)
28 JULY-11 AUGUST Machaneh Kadimah (Summer Camp) Two weeks of brilliant fun – for Plagim, Nechalim and Yamim (school years 3-10)
Student worker Yszi Hawkings tours Britain to connect with and inform Liberal Jewish undergraduates During two action-packed weeks in November I embarked on a tour of Liberal Jewish students, to meet them on their own territory, keep them abreast of Jewish opportunities and hear their ideas about events and ways to stay involved. I also handed out Chanukkah packs – a chanukkiah, candles, blessings, (chocolate) gelt, a dreidl and a latke recipe. The packs were especially helpful this year with the festival being early are most students still on campus. My trip took in Oxford, Cambridge, Loughborough, Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Durham, Edinburgh, Dublin, Liverpool, Cardiff, Bristol, Exeter, Bath, Brighton and London. As I moved my way across the country, eating became a regular activity, my task to make sure our students had at least one proper meal that week. In Edinburgh, we visited the cafe where JK Rowling wrote Yszi (centre) in Sheffield with Dinah Harry Potter, and Combe and Sam ‘Teddy’ Janoff Dublin was a chance to meet some new Liberal Jewish students as well as the familiar ones. In Cardiff I saw LJY-Netzer bogeret (graduate) Susie Crown in action as president of the Jewish Society at its Friday night dinner. Back in London, I caught up with some of our many students, who may be closer to home but are certainly not forgotten. Several towns and cities just couldn’t be fitted in this time – including Manchester, Warwick, Birmingham and Portsmouth – I’m looking forward to visiting them in 2011.
Contact the LJY-Netzer team: Josh (j.dubell@liberaljudaism.org), Adam (a.francies@liberaljudaism.org), Yszi (y.hawkings@ liberaljudaism.org) or Robin (r.moss@liberaljudaism.org); telephone 020 7631 0584 or email office@ljynetzer.org
Page 12 LJ Today
January/February 2011
Inspired by dog, one rabbi creates a service for pets
Liberal Judaism congregations
The Montagu Centre 21 Maple Street London, W1T 4BE Tel: 020 7580 1663 Fax: 020 7631 9838
www.liberaljudaism.org
President The Baroness Neuberger DBE Chairman Lucian J Hudson Deputy Chair Dr Amanda Grant Vice-Chairs Simon Benscher and Jackie Richards Treasurer David Pelham Social action and disability Leon Charikar Israel and the diaspora Daniel Needlestone Vice-Presidents and Honorary Vice-Presidents David Amstell, Monique Blake, Henry Cohn, Nigel Cole, Geoffrey Davis, Stanley Fink, Jeromé Freedman, Louise Freedman, Rabbi Dr David Goldberg, Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein, Sharon Goldstein, Rabbi Harry Jacobi, Jeremy Jessel, Willie Kessler, David Lipman, Corinne Oppenheimer, David Pick, Rosita Rosenberg, Tony Sacker, Harold Sanderson, Joan Shopper, Beverley Taylor, Clive Winston Chairman of Rabbinic Conference Rabbi Pete Tobias Chief Executive Rabbi Danny Rich Operations Director Shelley Shocolinsky-Dwyer PR Alexandra Ben-Yehuda Education Sandra Kviat Interfaith Rabbi Mark Solomon Shlicha Dana Friedman LJY-Netzer Josh Dubell, Adam Francies, Robin Moss Student worker Ysabella Hawkings
lj today is edited by Beatrice Sayers The deadline for the March 2011 edition is 1 February. Please email your news and letters to ljtoday@liberaljudaism.org. Liberal Judaism is the dynamic, cutting edge of modern Judaism. It reverences Jewish tradition, seeking to preserve the values of the Judaism of the past while giving them contemporary force. Registered charity number 236590. Printed by Precision Printing. www.precisionprinting.co.uk
Street, Elstree, Herts WD6 3BY; 020 8953 8889; tlse@liberaljudaism.org; www.tlse.org.uk Lincolnshire Jewish Community 01427 628958; ljc@liberaljudaism.org Manchester Liberal Jewish Community 08432 084441; mljc@liberaljudaism.org; www.mljc.org.uk North London Progressive Jewish Community 020 7403 3779; nlpjc@liberaljudaism.org; www.nlpjc.org.uk Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue Oaklands Gate, Northwood, Middx HA6 3AA; 01923 822592, npls@liberaljudaism.org; www.npls.org.uk Nottingham Progressive Jewish Congregation Lloyd Street, Sherwood NG5 4BP; 0115 9624761; npjc@liberaljudaism.org; www.npjc.org.uk Peterborough Liberal Jewish Community Enquiries: 020 7631 9822 The Progressive Jewish Community of East Anglia (based in Norwich); www.pjcea.org.uk Reading Liberal Jewish Community 0118 942 8022; rljc@liberaljudaism.org; www.rljc.org Shenfield, Brentwood & Districts Synagogue 01277 888610; info@roshtikvah.com; www.roshtikvah.com South Bucks Jewish Community PO Box 826, Amersham, HP6 9GA; 0845 644 2370; sbjc@liberaljudaism.org; www.sbjc.org.uk South London Liberal Synagogue PO Box 14475, London SW16 1ZW; 020 8769 4787; slls@liberaljudaism.org; www.southlondon.org Southgate Progressive Synagogue 75 Chase Road, London N14 4QY; 020 8886 0977; sps@liberaljudaism.org; www.sps.uk.com West Central Liberal Synagogue 21 Maple Street, London W1T 4BE; 020 7636 7627; wcls@liberaljudaism.org; www.wcls.org.uk Woodford Liberal Synagogue Marlborough Road, George Lane, London E18 1AR; 020 8989 7619; wps@liberaljudaism.org; www.woodfordliberal.org.uk
When Rabbi Pete Tobias acquired a Yorkshire terrier, he was forced to factor a dog walk schedule into trips to watch his beloved Watford play. But the Elstree rabbi also had his eyes opened. ‘Suddenly I understood the significant role that pets play in people’s lives,’ he says. The experience of bonding with his six-month-old terrier, Milo, inspired the rabbi to celebrate and welcome animals in the community. His pets liturgy includes readings from Jewish sages, including ‘Do not eat before Rabbi Pete Tobias with Milo you have fed your animal’ (Rav) and ‘A good man does not sell his animal to a cruel person’ (Sefer Chasidim). Elstree’s first Service for Pets was held in the synagogue car park. About 40 owners and 15 animals – all dogs – came. It lasted about 10 minutes, and was followed by food for the dogs and refreshments for the humans. Though Rabbi Tobias confesses to having borrowed the idea from the TV comedy The Vicar of Dibley, an earnest wish to celebrate the diversity of creation and the joy of companionship lies at the heart of the service, which he hopes will become an annual event.
Associated congregations
Beit Ha’Chidush Postbus 14613, 1001 LC Amsterdam, Netherlands, 00 31 23 524 7204; info@beithachidush.nl; www.beithachidush.nl Oxford Liberal Jewish Services: 01865 515584 or 01865 765197; www.ojc-online.org Wessex Liberal Jewish Group (Bournemouth) info@wessexliberaljudaism.org.uk; 01202 757084
Developing communities
North Herts Liberal Jewish Community (based in Stevenage) 07507 947406; nhljc@ liberaljudaism.org; www.northhertsljc.org The Suffolk Liberal Jewish Community (based in Ipswich), 01473 250797; sjc@liberaljudaism.org
‘tent: the meeting place’
the community for young adults Contact Avivit: a.katzil@liberaljudaism.org or 07866 501787
Make a date ...........
... as another opts to sleep rough
16 January (Sunday) I’m Jewish, My Partner Isn’t 2.30-5.45pm, Sternberg Centre; £5. Email Rabbi Jonathan Romain: rabromain@aol.com 27 January (Thursday) Holocaust Memorial Day 5 February (Saturday) Centenary Service at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, St John’s Wood 27 February (Sunday) Anat Hoffman, of Israel Religious Action Centre, at Jewish Book Week, Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London WC1; 5pm; in association with Liberal Judaism 9 April (Saturday) National Inclusion Committee seminar at Northwood and Pinner. Contact l.charikar@liberaljudaism.org 13-18 April Machaneh Aviv (Spring Camp) for school years 3-10. Contact: office@ljynetzer.org 22 May (Sunday) Liberal Judaism’s Day of Celebration at The Liberal Jewish Synagogue. Email a.grant@liberaljudaism.org 4 July (Monday) A Day to Study and Honour Rabbi John Rayner at the LJS 28 July (Thurs) - 11 August (Thurs) Machaneh Kadimah LJY-Netzer’s summer camp, at Cottesmore School. Please note revised dates
Phil Stone
Bedfordshire Progressive Synagogue (Rodef Shalom) 01234 218387; bedsps@liberaljudaism. org; www.bedfordshire-ps.org.uk Beit Klal Yisrael c/o The Montagu Centre, 21 Maple Street, London W1T 4BE; 07505 477459, bky@liberaljudaism.org; www.bky.org.uk Bet Tikvah Synagogue 129 Perrymans Farm Road, Ilford, Essex IG2 7LX; 020 8554 9682; bttkv@liberaljudaism.org; www.bettikvah.org.uk Birmingham Progressive Synagogue 1 Roseland Way, Birmingham B15 1HD; 0121 634 3888; bps@liberaljudaism.org; www.bpsjudaism.com Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue 6 Lansdowne Road, Hove BN3 1FF; 01273 737223; bhps@liberaljudaism.org; www.brightonandhoveprosynagogue.org.uk Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation 43-45 Bannerman Road, Easton, Bristol BS5 0RR bwpjc@liberaljudaism.org; www.bwpjc.org Crouch End Liberal Jewish Chavurah info@crouch endchavurah.co.uk; www.crouchendchavurah.co.uk Crawley Jewish Community 01293 534294 Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation PO Box 3059, Dublin 6, 00 3531 2856241; djpc@liberaljudaism.org Ealing Liberal Synagogue Lynton Avenue, Drayton Green, W13 0EB; 020 8997 0528; els@liberaljudaism. org; www.ealingliberalsynagogue.org.uk Eastbourne Progressive Jewish Congregation 01323 725650; fax: 01323 417645 epjc@liberaljudaism.org; www.epjcong.org.uk Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community 0131 777 8024; info@eljc.org; www.eljc.org Finchley Progressive Synagogue Hutton Grove, N12 8DR; 020 8446 4063; fps@liberaljudaism.org; www.fps.org Gloucestershire Liberal Jewish Community Enquiries: 01242 521468 or 01242 234232 Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue 326 Preston Road, Harrow HA3 0QH; 020 8904 8581; hwps@liberaljudaism.org; www.hwps.org Herefordshire Jewish Community 01594 530721; hjc@liberaljudaism.org; www.herefordshirejc.org Kent Liberal Jewish Community 07952 242432; bulletin.kljc@liberaljudaism.org; www.jewishkent.org.uk/communities/KLJC/kljc.html Kingston Liberal Synagogue Rushett Road, Long Ditton, Surbiton, Surrey; KT7 0UX; 020 8398 7400; kls@liberaljudaism.org; www.klsonline.org Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation The Synagogue, 24 Avenue Road, LE2 3EA; 07875 123744; lpjc@liberaljudaism.org The Liberal Jewish Synagogue 28 St John’s Wood Road, London NW8 7HA; 020 7286 5181; ljs@liberaljudaism.org; www.ljs.org The Liberal Synagogue Elstree Elstree High
Northwood’s Rabbi Aaron Goldstein spent a night sleeping out on the forecourt to St Albans Abbey in December, joining 200 others to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless. Plastic sheeting and cardboard were his protection against temperatures of -4°C, a snow shower and a prolonged period of sleet; none of which stopped him lighting his chanukkiah.