LJ Today January/February 2015

January/February 2015 VOL. XLII No. 1

Liberal Judaism is a constituent of the World Union for Progressive Judaism

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An amazing day in the Midlands PM’s letter to

Liberal Judaism

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INETY people attended the Liberal Judaism Midlands Shabbaton in November, representing 10 Jewish communities and four faiths.

Members of Liberal congregations from Leicester, Lincolnshire, Peterborough, Birmingham, Nottingham, Bedfordshire, Gloucestershire and beyond were joined by local Orthodox Jews, Christians, Sikhs and Jains at the University of Leicester.

The day began with activities for young children, followed by the registration of the flood of attendees who began immediately schmoozing with old friends and making new ones. There were two pre-service sessions, with participants choosing from ‘Three rabbis, four opinions’ – a panel discussion on the week’s Torah portion chaired by Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich – or an introduction to LJ’s Ba’alei Tefillah service-leading course.

The Shabbat morning service was led by Leicester Progressive Jewish Community’s Rabbi Mark Solomon. After a kiddush lunch, the sessions continued with Rabbi Danny Rich’s presentation on Rabbi Dr Israel Mattuck, a seminar on the Jewish heritage of Lincoln and ‘December Dilemma: Chanukkah, that other holiday and our interfaith families’, led by Rabbi Sandra Kviat.

The Shabbaton continued with ‘Finding the Flocks – strategies for developing your community’, led by Rabbi Anna Gerrard, a singing workshop on Shabbat melodies presented by Dean Staker and Cantor Gershon Silins, and a session on community social action by Rabbis Margaret Jacobi and Tanya Sakhnovich.

Throughout the day, young people enjoyed a series of parallel events created and led by LJY-Netzer movement worker Gabriel Webber. They then joined up with the adults for the conclusion of the day, leading Havdalah after a closing concert (both pictured above).

The Midlands Shabbaton was exciting, fun and useful, with session rooms filled to the last chair and plans made to meet up with newly discovered neighbours.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with members describing the day as “interesting, thought-provoking, informative and fun” and “an amazing day spent building connections across the Midlands in a spiritual and musical setting”. Parents said their children enjoyed it so much that “they are already asking when the next one is!”

For information on Liberal Judaism’s upcoming events, including future Shabbatons and the Day of Celebration, keep an eye on www.liberaljudaism.org

THE PRIME MINISTER, David Cameron, and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, have written to Liberal Judaism chairman Lucian J Hudson to support our movement’s stance on Israel.

Lucian wrote to all three major UK political party leaders, expressing the unique role Liberal Judaism plays within the Jewish community. He also stated that the diversity of opinion within our community with regard to Israel and Gaza has perhaps not been fully reflected in the heat of battle.

Lucian’s letter continued: “Liberal Judaism has long believed in, and campaigned for, a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Our movement maintains that no people should live under occupation and no country’s right to exist should be constantly challenged.

“During the recent conflict, we worked to ensure that any statement on behalf of the Jewish community reflected distress at the loss of human life on both sides and the range of views in the community.”

In a reply received last month, the Prime Minister wrote: “Like you, I have been deeply saddened by the tragic loss of civilian life in the recent escalation of violence in Gaza and Israel.

“The conflict has taken a terrible toll and I am aware of the impact that this has had on the British Jewish community.

I agree with you that it is important for the public to understand that a diversity of opinion exists.

“I share your support for a two-state solution, which remains the only way to resolve the conflict once and for all.”

The Deputy Prime Minister also wrote a substantial letter of support, with an assurance that the Middle East Peace Process is a priority. Liberal Judaism is awaiting a reply from the Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband.

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News

January/February 2015

Assisted dying - the great debate Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain on giving terminally ill people a right to die with dignity IF SOMEONE at the end of their life, dying in great pain, wishes not to continue and instead wants to take medication that will allow them to slip away gently, should that option be available?

At present, this is illegal in Britain – those who do so fall foul of the Suicide Act 1961 and anyone who assists them can be liable to prosecution. However, the Assisted Dying Bill - legislation which will change this - is currently passing through the House of Lords.

The effort is being spearheaded by Lord Falconer, who recently visited the Montagu Centre to brief an interfaith group of rabbis and vicars – including Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich and me – who are sympathetic to the issue.

Lord Falconer was at pains to emphasise the protections built into his Bill to safeguard against any possible abuses. Thus the process could only be initiated by patients themselves; it must be confirmed by two independent doctors that they are terminally ill and of sound mind; they must be counselled by a palliative care expert to ensure they have considered other options; there has to be a 14 day waiting period for reflection; and they can change their mind at any time.

Lord Falconer was also adamant that his Bill would not extend permission for assisted death to those who were not terminally ill, but who desired it because of depression or disability or physical suffering. There may be some very deserving individual cases, but assisting their death would be entirely different from speeding up that of those who were already dying and would be unacceptable.

Fears that it may lead to an avalanche of requests can also be laid aside, as a similar process to that advocated by Lord Falconer was legalised in Oregon in 1997.

Several thousand dying patients per year enquire about the possibility, but only around 0.2% (in 2012 Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, Lord Falconer and Rabbi Danny Rich this meant 75 people) actually choose it.

This indicates that many people wish to How should Jews react? Until now, have the emotional safety net of knowing Jewish medical ethics has recognised they can resort to an assisted death if that there are instances where one can their situation makes life intolerable, but stop someone from being kept alive the vast majority never find they reach artificially, such as through a life support that stage. machine, but has opposed allowing The Falconer Bill may run out of patients to take life-ending medication. parliamentary time before the General Those opposed to assisted dying refer Election, but the backing it has to “sanctity of life” as the main objection. received so far, both inside and outside Sanctity of life means valuing each individual life, but does it include insisting Westminster, means it will almost certainly be brought another time. a dying person lives on against their will?

There is a growing consensus, now Others argue that “God gives and God supported by many rabbis, that there is a takes” (Job 2.12) and we cannot usurp right to die as well as possible, and those that prerogative. Yet we are constantly who are terminally ill should have the defying God’s handiwork at both ends: option of assisted dying, whether or not it helping women unable to conceive is taken up. with test-tube babies or giving heart transplants to those who need them.

A biblical passage that may be relevant Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain is editor of to the changing perceptions today is Assisted Dying – Rabbinic Responses the Book of Ecclesiastes 3.2: “There is with essays by Reform and Liberal rabbis. a time to be born and a time to die.” It The book costs £9.99, but is available to is noticeable that it does not say who LJ members at a discounted price of £5. chooses that time. Maybe it should be the For orders, call 01628 673 012 or email decision of each person. admin@maidenheadsynagogue.org.uk

WHERE MIGHT YOU find 20 Liberal rabbis singing about the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost being the three men they admire the most? At the annual Rabbinic Conference Kallah (retreat), writes Rabbi Anna Gerrard.

It was the end of a long day in sunny Oxfordshire. We had grappled with issues around Jewish engagement through text study, dialogue, workshops and sharing of experiences – including an inspiring walk to Cherbury Camp.

It was time to let our hair down and bond. After a quiz that included a ‘name that cute little rabbi’ baby picture round, we cracked open our LJY-Netzer song books and crooned the night away.

News

January/February 2015

LJ Today Page 3

Jeremy and Mark make history LJ to host new Twilight project

By Joe Seager LIBERAL JUDAISM’S well-practised and long-held belief in equality gave Jeremy Williams and Mark Chalmers the chance to become one of the first Jewish samesex couples to get married in the UK. Jeremy and Mark have now settled into a loving married life at their home in Newcastle upon Tyne, after being wed at a ceremony conducted by Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi, of Birmingham Progressive Synagogue (BPS), and attended by 120 family and friends.

A well-attended aufruf (call up) had previously taken place in Birmingham.

Prior to their wedding day, the couple had studied and attended services at BPS – cherishing the warmth of a friendly and welcoming community.

Jeremy told lj today: “We could not have received a more ready acceptance of the life we wanted to share together and we knew that decision was valued according to the principles adopted by Liberal Judaism. That showed we had the right to the equality and respect that people in all types of loving relationships should have.”

Mark completed his conversion to Liberal Judaism a month before the couple were married at Ringwood Hall, near Chesterfield. He said his enthusiasm for Judaism was heightened by the inspiration he drew from Rabbi Margaret’s study classes.

Rabbi Margaret – pictured above with Mark (left) and Jeremy – told the couple that just as their wedding was a new beginning for them, the event was also something new for her and for the whole of the Birmingham Jewish community.

She said: “You are indeed pioneers in having a same-sex wedding and we are grateful that legislation was passed earlier this year to allow this to happen. It is clear that for you this is not about being radical for the sake of it, but because it is the right and natural thing to do. Judaism is your ‘home’, which Jeremy has grown up with and Mark has joyfully entered.”

The couple recently left Birmingham to live in Newcastle upon Tyne, where Mark is studying for a master’s degree in language pathology at the city’s university. Jeremy has a career in music management. They now attend services at Newcastle Reform Synagogue.

RABBIS DANNY RICH and Leah Jordan helped Norwich Liberal Jewish Community (NLJC) celebrate its 25th anniversary, pictured left.

Eighty members and guests attended the service including the Lord Mayor of Norwich, the City Sheriff, the Catholic Bishop of East Anglia, local Conservative MP Chloe Smith, Liberal Judaism vice chair Simon Benscher and members of other religious groups.

LIBERAL JUDAISM will host Twilight People: Stories of Gender and Faith Beyond the Binary – a new project supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Launched just after Transgender Awareness Month, Twilight People is a landmark initiative that discovers and celebrates the hidden history of transgender and gender-variant people of faith in the UK past and present. This collection will become the first source of faith and transgender history in Britain.

Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich said: “Liberal Judaism has always seen part of its mission as giving voice to the unheard. Our hosting of Twilight People is yet a further example.”

Gender-nonconforming people have existed in every culture and community throughout history, including religious communities, yet little is known about the people of faith who don’t fit neatly into the binary categories of male and female.

Twilight People will explore the narratives around ‘body and ritual’, documenting the interconnection between faith and gender journeys.

The images and stories of more than 40 members of the various Abrahamic faith (and other) communities will be documented by means of oral history, film and portrait photography.

The collated materials will be mapped, catalogued and shared with the wider audience via free channels including an archive collection, website, interactive digital hubs, touring exhibition, booklet, educational resource packs and other tools. A symposium will be held in spring 2016 at the University of Warwick.

Other partners in the project include the Lesbian & Gay Christian Movement, London Metropolitan Archives, Gendered Intelligence and Islington Museum.

For more information or to get involved, please contact Twilight People project manager Surat Knan on 07908 185 872 or s.knan@liberaljudaism.org NLJC chair Sarah Boosey said: “We are developing as a vibrant, welcoming, inclusive community. We have a thriving cheder, with more children and young people than ever before. Rabbi Leah has recently been ordained and we benefit from her tremendous enthusiasm.

“The anniversary was a very joyful occasion and our guests, many of whom had not attended a Liberal service before, said how much they enjoyed it.”

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Communities

January/February 2015

Back to the future at NPLS anniversary Judi Herman on a unique way of celebrating 50 years of Northwood & Pinner

HOW TO MARK the 50th anniversary of Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue (NPLS)? It’s fun to look back - but the idea I had of projecting 50 years forward to the centenary proved pretty thoughtprovoking. And so the production 2064 Hard New World was born.

Imagining a hard new world – technology rich but poor in natural resources, after bad management of the Earth, disasters and global conflict – brought many questions. What would be the future of faith in a dystopia where the over 70s were seen as such a drain on resources that they were consigned to a virtual existence as avatars - their physical resources terminated?

Loading the dice some more, what if everyone was sent out to work at age 13 so that grandparents would become even more vital in looking after their grandchildren than they are today. What would their grandchildren do to save their beloved grandparents? How would they square the ‘avatar-only program’ with the fifth and sixth commandments?

Together with Ruth Colin and Ingrid Squires, my colleagues on the directing team, we held a workshop and were really excited at the ideas for developing the script and the talents that emerged.

We particularly wanted to share ideas with the current grandchildren’s generation, the teenagers, aficionados of the futuristic dystopias of The Hunger Games and Divergent.

Steve, my husband, and I then took these ideas and spent the summer writing scenarios and dialogue with the help of the new Team 2064 and natural born script editor Sam Finkelstein.

Several of our Kabbalat Torah students formed a band that rocked and wrote stunning musical numbers with really telling words. Lydia Boffey, already a singer/songwriter with a following in Liberal Judaism, wrote a whole album’s worth of glorious numbers and I teamed up with local composer Glenn Keiles and his wife Vivien to write a couple more.

Other students used their skills to film the more fantastical futuristic scenes.

A cast of 30 aged from eight to 80 years-old, including whole families, played three generations of embattled Liberal Jews, ruthless members of the world government and defiant denizens of Subter, literally an underground movement. We even organised a flash mob to film a mass protest scene.

There wasn’t nearly enough time to rehearse, just weekends from the end of September to mid-November, with most people away over half term, but somehow we got it together anyway.

The audience were gripped and surprised by the end result - it was entertaining, the music was catchy all right, but it asked difficult questions, questions Team 2064 had to grapple with too. And for Team 2064, above all, it brought the generations together to work intensively as a team and get to know each other in a way that surprised and excited us all.

Now we’re wondering how to build on what we’ve made - and what to do with our weekends…

York blessing is Limmud guide A new rabbi and first for 50 years IF YOU ARE going to this year’s Ark for Wessex

SAMARA ALEXANDRA McGUIRK became the first Jewish baby to receive a blessing in York for at least half a century. As part of the York Liberal Jewish Community’s November Shabbat morning service, twomonth-old Samara received the blessing from Rabbi Danny Rich, pictured above.

Limmud Conference – which takes place from December 28 to January 1 - then look out for a number of Liberal Judaism leaders presenting.

Sessions will be led by Rabbis Danny Rich, Leah Jordan, Richard Jacobi, Margaret Jacobi, Harry Jacobi, Lea Muehlstein and Dr Charles Middleburgh. Others involved include LJY-Netzer movement workers Gabriel Webber, Tamara Silver and Tom Francies, Rainbow Jews’ Surat Knan, Abigail Jacobi, Robin Moss, Graham Carpenter, Dean Staker and Gwendolen Burton.

WESSEX LIBERAL JEWISH COMMUNITY held a treble celebration in November – with Rabbi Rene Pfertzel, pictured fourth from left, delivering his first service, the gift of a beautiful Ark donated by member Anne Flor-Szewczyk and the 21st birthday of Eddie Smith all on the same Shabbat.

Communities

January/February 2015

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Mitzvah Day 2014 in pictures

Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue asked shoppers to buy extra items to donate to St Luke’s Hospice and Barnet Shelter

Woodford Liberal Synagogue’s children made flowers and attached mitzvot. The community also collected items for Jason Lee House

Oxford Jewish Community joined an interfaith group of Baha’i, Quaker, Pagan and Jewish people planting trees in community woodland

Bet Tikvah Synagogue took on two projects – donating items to Redbridge Foodbank and serving lunch for senior citizens at the shul

Liberal Judaism’s staff team joined with the Council of Christians & Jews to donate items to the local Trussell Trust foodbank

Nottingham Liberal Synagogue worked with Orthodox young people to make lunch for community elders - before putting on a show

Kingston Liberal Synagogue’s choir entertained residents of Southborough Nursing Home with some lively songs

York Liberal Jewish Community’s grocery collection for York Foodbank netted enough toilet paper to wrap all around the city’s wall

Gloucestershire Liberal Jewish Community took part in an interfaith Mitzvah Day event, filling and decorating parcels for good causes

LJY-Netzer’s bogrim (members aged 18+) travelled to Sinai Synagogue in Leeds to take part in an interfaith challah bake for refugees

North Herts Liberal Jewish Community’s project was to paint the hall and toilet at a local community centre for disabled adults

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Israel

January/February 2015

Israel theme for Day of Celebration Rabbi Charley Baginsky previews Liberal Judaism’s biggest event of 2015 I KNOW that after the events in Israel and Palestine this summer, many of my rabbinic colleagues preached sermons on the topic over the High Holy Days. I am told that, without exception, you could tell this was the topic that had been preached by the number of people still discussing the contents in the car park long after the service had ended.

In my own sermon I mentioned an article by Rabbi Jill Jacobs, the executive director of Teruah – the Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, where she writes about four articles that appeared over the period on whether rabbis should preach on Israel at all. Two observed that rabbis are worried that if they pitch their sermon wrongly they will lose their jobs, one advises rabbis never to speak about Israel and, finally, the last one argued that they have a duty to. Rabbi Jacobs herself advocates that rabbis must speak about Israel, but urges for a change in the discourse: rather than speak in easy platitudes, we must attempt to take the complexity of truths into account.

It may seem that Israel is not an obvious choice of theme for Liberal Judaism’s Day of Celebration, which will take place on Sunday June 7. After all, the title of the conference indicates that this is a day for celebrating Liberal Judaism and Liberal Jews.

There have been moments in the last year, and longer even, when there are many who have not felt that ‘celebrating’ and ‘Israel’ went hand in hand. However, arguably, as Liberal Judaism this is exactly the time when we must celebrate this relationship. The only reason Israel demands the extra time in the car park is because the relationship affects us all.

We must explore new ways of talking about Israel, investigate new paradigms for our relationship as the Diaspora with Israel and inspire each other with tales of people and projects which are changing lives and realities.

As Liberal Jews we have never shied away from tackling difficult topics and Israel should be no exception. It’s often said, to paraphrase a famous slogan, that

Liberal Judaism refreshes the parts other streams of Judaism cannot reach and we intend to embrace this idea. We can travel the gamut of multiple expressions and feelings and still celebrate.

This Day of Celebration is a chance to find ways in which we can all share our critique or passion, disappointment and aspirations and even maybe our ambivalence. But it is also a chance to remind ourselves of our deep connection and build a new model of relationship firmly rooted in mutuality and learning.

There will be speakers and educators from Israel and the Diaspora, from within Liberal Judaism and beyond. There will also be plenty of opportunity for some more classical celebrations with music, dance, comedy and, of course, food.

So please put Sunday June 7, 2015, in your diary. Venue, ticket, speaker and programme information will be released on www.liberaljudaism.org shortly.

Rabbi Charley Baginsky is chair of the Day of Celebration organising committee

Many visions - one Sunday seminar

By Robin Moss FEW SUBJECTS show the remarkable diversity of opinion, and the passionate convictions of Liberal Jews, as well as that of Israel. Whilst as a movement we probably agree on many (though not all) areas of religious life, when it comes to the Jewish state, we are a broad tent.

Voices from the left, the right and the centre; self-defined Zionists, self-defined anti-Zionists, self-defined non-Zionists; Brits who have never been to Israel, Brits who go many times a year, Israelis who are spending a few months, a few years or the rest of their lives in the UK – all of these contribute to the rich, vibrant and sometimes fractious conversation about Israel among our communities.

So when Rabbi Leah Jordan, Liberal Judaism’s student and young adult chaplain and an excellent Israel educator, convened a Sunday Seminar on the topic, it was sure to be an intriguing and potentially contentious few hours.

The 20-or-so participants began by saying their names, communities and why they had chosen to attend. The range of reasons – from “I love Israel and want to learn how to talk about it in my

community” through “I’ve fallen out with my rabbi because I don’t think they are pro-Israel enough” to “I just came back from Israel Tour with LJY-Netzer and I am more confused than ever” – laid the groundwork for a fascinating afternoon.

Rabbi Leah had sensibly decided to tackle Israel through three distinct lenses, in order to emphasise that a Liberal Jewish engagement with the Jewish State cannot and should not be unimodal or univocal. She began by teaching us classical Jewish texts that gave a window into the thinking of our ancestors as to how and why the Land of Israel is so special. An early challenge of “why is this relevant to today?” was welcome, providing Rabbi Leah with a platform to show that not only are ancient texts and traditions still contested, fought over and alive in the region today, but also that by providing a common language for the whole Jewish people to speak, text can anchor more meaningful Jewish conversations around Israel.

After a short lunch, Rebecca Daniels from the left-wing group Yachad was given the “political” lens through which to engage us. Choosing as her subject the predicament of Palestinian residents

of East Jerusalem, whose legal status, material conditions and hybrid identities are all complex and difficult, this was the section of the day where the most “argument” took place. This, though, was healthy, because although Israel should never be all politics, Israel without any politics would be a poorer conversation, and we should celebrate, rather than shy away from, our tolerance of a range of opinions within our movement.

Finally, I led a discussion on having Jewish conversations about Israel. Using the extraordinarily rich and culturally and Jewishly literate music of Kobi Oz, the group somehow managed to consider Jewish identity in Israel and the UK, grandfather-grandchild emotional relationships, poverty and inequality, the nature of religious pluralism, security and fear and a host of other themes.

Overall, this was a Sunday Seminar that it was brave of Liberal Judaism to organise, genuinely engaging in its content and a reflection of our values as a movement that truly wants to engage with Israel as it is and as it could be.

Robin Moss is head of Israel engagement at UJIA and an officer of Liberal Judaism

Remembrance

January/February 2015

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Enter the Serving with distinction LAFTAs LIBERAL JUDAISM’S cheders and religion schools are invited to compete in this year’s Liberal Academy of Film and Torah Awards (LAFTAs). The young people of each Liberal community are asked to submit a short film on the topic of ‘A Day in the Life of Israel’.

The top entries will be shown at Liberal Judaism’s Day of Celebration event on June 7, with the winning community awarded the coveted LAFTA trophy. Films are to be between two and three minutes and will be judged on creativity, humour, youth participation, artistic merit and overall brilliance.

An education pack will be sent to communities by the end of January. The deadline for film submission is May 1. For details, email s.kviat@liberaljudaism.org

NLPS history recorded ALISON TURNER, archivist of Liberal Judaism, is pleased to announce that the London Metropolitan Archive (LMA) has catalogued the extensive collection of material from Liberal Judaism’s secondoldest congregation, North London Progressive Synagogue (NLPS).

The papers, photographs and other materials cover the whole of the congregation’s life from its beginning in 1929 to its closure in 2002 and subsequent transfer of members to almost every other Liberal congregation.

The collection can be seen at the LMA in the City of London. There are photos of rabbis and members from the days of Reverend Dr Maurice L Perlzweig, Viscount Reading, Dr R Brasch, David Kossoff and Millie Miller to Rabbi Bernard Hooker, Rev Herbert Richer, Judith Fox and Eva Morrison, interiors of the old Belfast Road Synagogue in 1933 and the new synagogues in Amhurst Park, trips to Israel, services and festivals.

It also includes synagogue magazines, newspaper cuttings, interviews with members and historical letters.

Overall it is a full collection of one of the very few congregations to celebrate a 75th anniversary – and will be useful to researchers for many years to come.

Further information can be obtained by calling the LMA on 020 7332 3820 or emailing ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk

Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue members and Second World War heroes Cyril Sherwood and Jack Mann laid wreaths at Northwood War Memorial. Photos by Phil Stone

LIBERAL JEWISH communities across the country took part in centenary Remembrance Sunday tributes, parades and prayers in November.

From a moving service at The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, attended by Liberal Judaism chairman Lucian J Hudson, to commemorations for the fallen in North Herts, Northwood and Norwich – all our congregations paid tribute.

Below, Colonel Martin Newman DL, the chairman of the Jewish Committee for HM Forces, tells the history of the Jews who serve their country: THE CENTENARY commemoration of the First World War marks not only an important milestone in modern history, but also the tumultuous beginning of a century that would change the face of Europe and the world.

From a Jewish perspective, the Great War would also sow the seeds of the Holocaust and the upheaval of Jewish life on the continent. But there is another parallel and more optimistic British Jewish story - that of proud service and sacrifice for King and country; and of exemplary commitment and citizenship.

The number of identified Jews who served during WWI, based on British military records, was around 50,000.

But then, as now, it was not entirely uncommon to be reticent in declaring one’s Jewish identity. Many Jews also changed their names for fear of antisemitism. These factors mean that the actual number was likely higher.

Five Jewish soldiers won the Victoria Cross awarded for valour “in the face of the enemy”. The courage shown by Sergeant Issy Smith (Shmulevitch), Captain Robert Gee, Lieutenant Frank Alexander de Pass, Private Jack White (Weiss), and Lance Corporal Leonard

Maurice Keysor still resonates in the annals of army history.

In addition, Jews formed their own unit, the Zion Mule Corps, fighting at Gallipoli and the Dardanelles in 1915.

The Zion Mule Corps and the Jewish Battalion went on to fight with distinction in Palestine. In 1918, three Jewish units made up the Jewish Legion in Palestine.

The pattern for WWII was much the same. More than 60,000 British Jews serving, out of a total population of some 300,000. There were decorations including three VCs, and sadly casualties were also disproportionately high. An additional 30,000 Jews from Palestine and the colonies served with distinction.

Jews have served in every conflict since. We lost a soldier in the Falklands and two officers in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan. There is still a very active small, but significant, Armed Forces Jewish Community supported by the Jewish Committee for HM Forces, on which Liberal Judaism plays an important role and is represented by Lucian J Hudson. The movement also supports our work financially and practically.

After many years we are now served by a full time commissioned and an army reserve chaplain and we are in the process of appointing officiating chaplains to the military so we can support troops of all denominations of Judaism. Our military ethos means that we do not differentiate, as our troops range from Orthodox to all shade of Progressive Judaism and none.

If someone registers as Jewish when they join the Armed Forces, they are worthy of our support. In this centenary year we are working to create awareness of the continuing contribution to our defence by British Jews, sadly often forgotten by the mainstream community.

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Obituary

January/February 2015

Farewell Rabbi Sheila My house in Two friends remember an inspirational Liberal leader

By Natalie Collins

By Student Rabbi Naomi Goldman

ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 25, Rabbi Sheila Shulman died at home, surrounded by friends, colleagues and students – from the feminist movement, from Beit Klal Yisrael (BKY), the House of all Israel, the community she founded in 1990, and from Leo Baeck College. An insightful writer, teacher and rabbi, she is a great loss to all who knew her and to Reform and Liberal Judaism. She was also well respected in her multi-faith work and a role model for those fighting injustice.

Born in New York, Sheila came to London in 1970 and began teaching. It was there that she discovered feminism, then lesbian feminism and later Jewish lesbian feminism. She worked as part of a collective at the office of the Women’s Liberation Movement, trained as a printer and then became editor at Imprint Books and, later, at Onlywomen Press.

In 1984, having done research at Leo Baeck College, Sheila applied and was accepted to train as a rabbi, alongside Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah, whom she knew from the Jewish lesbian feminist group. They were the first out lesbian feminists to be accepted at the College. It was not a unanimous decision and both had to be incredibly courageous, as they were aware of being watched throughout their training. Sheila received a distinction for her thesis, but could not find a synagogue who wanted her as a rabbi.

At this point her good friend Rabbi Lionel Blue said to her “go on, start a congregation” and, with some help, she did just that. An American Catholic friend gave her a cheque for £50, she enlisted four secular Jewish lesbian feminists and they created Beit Klal Yisrael.

Initially, it was Jewish lesbians who began to go along. But then gay men came, then straight people – all going to a place where they could be the Jews they were, not needing to fit into some mainstream belief they did not share.

And it is this spirit of communality that keeps us going almost 25 years on. Sheila retired in 2007, but continued to play an enormous role within the congregation.

RABBI SHEILA SHULMAN was an extraordinary teacher, an inspirational rabbi and a voice of fierce integrity. She always had something significant to say and what she said always mattered.

In a piece she wrote about how to read rabbinic texts, Sheila explained that our task was to try to stay open to the ideas without violating our own core.

The way in which she maintained her core, her radicalism, her feminism, her truth, was a model of how to engage with Judaism as a living tradition, one that can accommodate and add meaning to the real lives that we all inhabit.

Sheila taught not just through texts, but through her whole life. I remember spending an evening with her talking about how to be the kind of rabbi that makes changing the world a priority. She once said that, for her, politics and spirituality were basically the same thing and her ability to harness these two forces, and not compromise either, was truly inspirational.

She passed on her fierce and intimate engagement with texts of all kinds – she felt the ideas. Sheila saw Judaism as an ongoing project, one that we all have to be involved in building. One of her favourite quotes, from Ursula K Le Guin, was: “You can go home again so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been. “ She took all her students along the path to that place we had never been, via Heschel, Kafka, Rosenzweig, Buber and contemporary radical theology. She leaves a deep and significant legacy that lies in our hearts and minds and the work we will go on to do.

To be on the critical edge and to deliberately place oneself on the margins, but at the same time occupy a leadership role within mainstream Judaism – that is the challenge and example that Sheila set us all.

Natalie Collins is a former chair of BKY

• You can hear and read an extensive interview with Rabbi Sheila Shulman, recorded earlier this year as part of the Rainbow Jews project, by visiting www.rainbowjews.com

Budapest…

THE LYRICS of George Ezra’s hit were a constant echo and inspiration to a group of 20 Kabbalat Torah students from four communities, who recently spent a long weekend in the Hungarian capital discovering its sights, people and history.

The teenagers – from Southgate Progressive, Woodford Liberal, Crouch End Chavurah and Westminster Synagogue – were led

by Rabbi Richard Jacobi, Emma Marsh, Laurence Suckling and Nick Young, representing each congregation, and guided by locals and LJY-Netzer Kayitz Tour veterans Agi Salgo and Andras Csillag.

The journey actually began back in September at an orientation session at Westminster Synagogue that included a visit to the Czech Scrolls Museum for an initial engagement with the Central European Jewish historical context.

Friendships that had been formed that day certainly strengthened throughout the weekend, during a very full programme which included a bus tour of the highlights of Budapest, a scavenger hunt through the Jewish quarter, a night-time boat trip on the Danube and visits to the Great Synagogue, Statue Park and Holocaust Museum. Kabbalat Shabbat was spent with the Sim Shalom Progressive community.

The highlight for all was a tikkun olam project, organised in conjunction with the Serve the City group in Budapest, which, a week ahead of Mitzvah Day, saw the students spend Saturday morning with the patients at a residential care home for people with intermediate to profound mental and physical disabilities. After visiting patients in their wards, the group spent time talking, playing games and doing arts and crafts with the residents.

The director of the Centre spoke of being very impressed with our young people. But it was the smiles of the residents, who rarely receive visits of this sort, that told the greatest story.

As one of the students put it during a reflective Havdalah activity: ” It is great to discover a new city and make new friends, but I’m really glad that we could give something back and help people there.”

Reviews

January/February 2015

LJ Today Page 9

Building hope during times of tragedy A JEWISH BOOK OF COMFORT by Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh and Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein Reviewed by Rabbi Alexandra Wright, The Liberal Jewish Synagogue IN THE EARLY YEARS of my rabbinate, struggling to write something meaningful for funerals, shivas and tombstone consecrations, I frequently turned to a copy of A Treasury of Comfort, edited

by Rabbi Sidney Greenberg and published in 1954. It was, at the time, out of print and I seemed to have it on permanent loan from The Liberal Jewish Synagogue (LJS) library, until it was reprinted as a paperback decades later.

Visiting congregants in hospital, hospice or at home, I leaned on Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg’s slim volume With Healing on Its Wings: Contemplations in Time of Illness, a sensitively composed anthology of prayers and readings around times of illness or approaching death.

In Rabbis Charles Middleburgh and Andrew Goldstein’s new anthology, A Jewish Book of Comfort, the editors have gathered over 100 passages, drawn from the Bible, Talmud and Midrash, mediaeval and contemporary poets, halakhah and rabbinic and other writings.

The book is divided into 16 chapters guiding the reader from ‘The Pain of Life’, ‘Patience and Fortitude’, ‘Illness’, ‘Healing’ and ‘Growing Older’, to ‘Immortality and Life after Death’ and ‘Faith and the Power of Prayer.’ Each one includes up to 25 passages, addressing the theme of the chapter.

Two chapters deal with the most difficult of all situations: the death of the young and the painful and hurtful memories that can surround the death of a close relative.

In ‘A Coda: Death Before Their Time’ is the famous story of the death of the child of David and Bathsheba. While it is obvious to include this, it is, nevertheless, a difficult text to bring to grieving parents, because the death of the infant is seen as a punishment for David’s adultery. It was good to see Rabbi Walter Rothschild’s ‘After a Stillbirth’, a poetic prayer which skilfully weaves biblical and liturgical expressions at a time of immense sorrow.

In ‘Coda 2: Painful Memories’, the editors include ‘A Yizkor Meditation in Memory of a Parent Who was Hurtful’, addressing the turbulent emotions of a son or daughter about to say Kaddish.

Aware of the duty to do what is right as a Jew and a child, the author prays for help to “subdue my bitter emotions that do me no good” without pretending “to love or to grief that I do not feel”.

Out of 111 contributions, 65% are drawn from American poets, rabbis and writers, 35% are biblical and only 24% are by women. I missed passages from some of my own colleagues, apart from Jonathan Wittenberg, ‘What we Really Lose’, and Charles Middleburgh, whose meditation on ‘Suicide’ reflects the aching devastation of such a bereavement.

The editors’ favourite is Harold Schulweis, the long-serving American Conservative rabbi. His contributions make up 11% of the pieces in the book, on a par with readings from our own Siddur Lev Chadash and Machzor Ruach Chadashah, as well as Rabbi Israel Mattuck’s Liberal Jewish Prayer Book.

As the editors write in the book’s introduction: “There are always moments in every human life when we need to find sources of comfort, to sustain us through times of anxiety, disappointment or pain, of loss or bereavement.”

This volume continues a powerful tradition within Jewish history to build resilience and hope during times of grief and tragedy. It is a hard thing to find something meaningful and sincere to say or reflect on in dark times, but here, averting all sentimentality, there is integrity and honesty in each piece.

• Purchase your copy for £14 by calling Liberal Judaism on 020 7580 1663.

Theatre review: Last Train to Tomorrow Picture by Simon Weir - www.simonweir.com

By Ruth Selo THE ROUNDHOUSE in north London was packed on a sunny Remembrance Sunday afternoon for the finale of the Association of Jewish Refugees’ (AJR) commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Kindertransport. The highlight was the London premiere of The Last

Train to Tomorrow, performed by the Finchley Children’s Music Group and conducted by Carl Davis.

The Last Train to Tomorrow, with lyrics by children’s writer Hiawyn Oram, tells the story of the 10,000 Kindertransport children who came from Nazi-occupied Europe to the UK just before the outbreak of World War II. The event was attended by the Prince of Wales, who wrote in the programme notes: “How proud I am of the choice our forebears made and of the role of our Jewish community in supporting the rescue mission.”

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, whose grandparents fled Berlin, led a commemoration of Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom of November 1938, and six former ‘Kinder’ lit candles to remember the victims of the regime which included nearly all the parents of the children, aged between three and 17, who came to Britain. He paid tribute to the British parliamentarians and others, notably the Quakers, who saw the approaching danger and created the Kindertransport.

The Last Train to Tomorrow was impeccably sung and acted by the young choir dressed in 1930’s clothes with labels on strings round their necks. The lyrics made the story accessible to all age groups and the music created an atmosphere of menace turning to one of bittersweet hope, as the narrative of long journeys in a dangerous Europe unfolded.

Page 10 LJ Today

Outreach

January/February 2015

Outreach Team Bulletin Board WELCOME to a very special Outreach Team Bulletin Board, focusing on our work with students and young adults. As Liberal Judaism’s student and young adult chaplain, this time of year is always very busy and very rewarding. One of the many highlights was 15 Liberal, Reform and Masorti students gathering in Birmingham, pictured below, to pray, discuss the current goings-on in Israel and enjoy a wonderful home cooked meal.

Rabbi Leah l.jordan@ liberaljudaism.org

AS A JOINT young adult venture under the new alliance between Liberal Judaism and the Movement for Reform Judaism, the JW3 invited Rabbi Benji Stanley, Reform’s young adult development rabbi, and me to run a three-part series of ‘young professional’ sessions in their new deluxe kitchen.

Set up as an intimate dinner and discussion around a large table, each event pulled in a full table of around 15 people in their 20s and 30s to eat and explore the topic ‘Midrash and fan fiction’, a marriage between pop culture and Torah.

FOR TWO TERMS now, the Montagu Centre has played fortnightly host to perhaps one of its most exciting and dynamic guest groups: the London Students Egalitarian Minyan.

Egal Min, as it’s known by its participants, is a group run for and by Jewish students from across London’s universities. It began as a coordinated effort between Kate Cohen and Joe Grabiner, two progressive London students who said they had attended several Shabbat dinners hosted by London JSocs, only to find they weren’t quite what they were looking for - not

the creative, egalitarian Kabbalat Shabbat experiences they’d loved on camp, on gap year and in the youth movements of Liberal, Reform and Masorti. So they decided to see if there was interest in something more progressive and egalitarian - and the response has been emphatic.

In late November, a loud and happy group of university students once more descended on the Montagu Centre after hours to grill up an amazing veggie meal, pictured below, before joining Reform’s student worker Sophie Lipton and me in welcoming Shabbat.

Taking seriously the famous Jewish quote by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, “The Torah is a commentary on the world, and the world is a commentary on the Torah,” we developed and discussed crazy interpretations of some of our most beloved cheder stories, like Joseph and Potiphar’s wife and Moses on Mount Sinai.

We compared how the Jewish tradition embellishes and expands on those moments in Midrash with how contemporary fans of the BBC show Sherlock try to create their own versions of events of the popular programme.

“All worthy work is open to interpretations the author did not intend. Art isn’t your pet, it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you,” Joss Whedon, the successful Hollywood screenwriter once wrote. That is also true of the Jewish tradition, as we learned in our monthly dinners.

A great chance to see friends and meet new people, several attendees told me this was their first time in the JW3 and that the sessions’ target age group and content drew them in. Definitely a partnership, with the JW3 and MRJ, worth a repeat.

Youth

January/February 2015

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

Gap years are more than just fun Tom Francies on the amazing experience of discovering the world... and yourself

Many of Liberal Judaism’s rabbis and staff took gap years, including LJY-Netzer movement workers Tamara Silver and Tom Francies (right)

WHY DO A GAP YEAR? It’s a question I hear being asked more and more. There seems to a trend, as of late, to not see the value in a gap year. I strongly disagree.

Now you may scream bias, you might say that I have an agenda, and it is true that LJY-Netzer does run its own gap year programme. It is also true that I think Shnat-Netzer is an amazing opportunity and experience, but that is not what the focus of this article is going to be about.

A gap year gives you the opportunity to grow and develop your independence.

Whether you are trekking through South America, volunteering in a kibbutz or teaching English in India, you are forced to look after yourself. Up until you are 18 you are looked after, by parents, by teachers and even occasionally by youth movement volunteers, but what happens when you reach that mystical age that is meant to represent adulthood? There is no course on how to be an adult, no handbook or guide.

This is where gap years come in – they can act as a place to grow and make mistakes, in a generally less-pressured environment than at university. They are a formative time in your life where you are exploring not only a new environment, whether that be travelling or working, but also looking inside yourself.

Gap years are more than just fun, although they are definitely that, they help you in the next stage of your life as well. Rabbi Aaron Goldstein said this of how his gap year helped him at university: “Being a year more mature meant that I was well placed to make the most of my university experience and especially to value extra-curricular activities, including involvement with Liberal Judaism youth movements both nationally and locally.”

While gap years are definitely a space to grow as a person they are also a place to make friends, develop socially and just have fun. Rabbi Charley Baginsky says: “I was on Shnat-Netzer in 19971998 and it allowed me to develop a close

and long lasting relationship with Israel and friendships which are still among some of the most important in my life. It was a year in which I grew, matured and learned both about living on my own and as part of a community.”

All this is why we here at LJY-Netzer think that gap years are a vital part of personal development. While we would love to see more people on Shnat-Netzer, having an ideological gap year in Israel, we see the value in almost any gap year – whether you are looking after howler monkeys in Guatemala or learning about Reform Zionism in Israel.

Take a gap year, you won’t regret it.

• NEXT YEAR is going to be another action packed one for LJY-Netzer. Coming up in 2015 are lots of exciting events including weekend events from February 13-15 and our now legendary Machaneh Aviv spring camp from March 28 until April 2. Get in touch using the contact details below for more information.

Contact the LJY-Netzer team: Tom Francies (tom@liberaljudaism.org), Tamara Silver (tamara@liberaljudaism.org) and Gabriel Webber (gabriel@liberaljudaism.org); office telephone 020 7631 0584

Page 12 LJ Today

January/February 2015

Liberal Judaism congregations Bedfordshire Progressive Synagogue T: 0845 869 7105 E: bedsps@liberaljudaism.org W: bedfordshire-ps.org.uk

Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community T: 0131 777 8024 E: info@eljc.org W: eljc.org

Beit Klal Yisrael (Notting Hill) E: bkymailing@gmail.com W: bky.org.uk

Finchley Progressive Synagogue T: 020 8446 4063 E: fps@liberaljudaism.org W: fps.org

Bet Tikvah Synagogue (Barkingside) T: 020 8554 9682 E: bttkv@liberaljudaism.org W: bettikvah.blogspot.co.uk Birmingham Progressive Synagogue T: 0121 634 3888 E: bps@liberaljudaism.org W: bpsjudaism.com Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue T: 01273 737 223 E: bhps@liberaljudaism.org W: brightonandhoveprosynagogue.org.uk Bristol and West Progressive Jewish Congregation E: bwpjc@bwpjc.org W: bwpjc.org Crouch End Chavurah E: info@crouchendchavurah.co.uk W: crouchendchavurah.co.uk Crawley Jewish Community T: 01293 534 294 Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation E: djpc@liberaljudaism.org W: djpcireland.com

Gloucestershire Liberal Jewish Community T: 01242 609 311 E: shalom@gljc.org.uk W: gljc.org.uk Harrow and Wembley Progressive Synagogue T: 020 8864 5323 E: hwps@liberaljudaism.org W: hwps.org Herefordshire Jewish Community T: 01594 530 721 E: hjc@liberaljudaism.org W: herefordshirejc.org Kehillah North London T: 020 7403 3779 E: knl@liberaljudaism.org W: nlpjc.org.uk Kent Liberal Jewish Community T: 07952 242432 E: kljc@liberaljudaism.org W: tinyurl.com/kentljc Kingston Liberal Synagogue T: 020 8398 7400 E: kls@liberaljudaism.org W: klsonline.org

Ealing Liberal Synagogue T: 020 8997 0528 E: els@liberaljudaism.org W: ealingliberalsynagogue.org.uk

Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation T: 0116 271 5584 E: lpjc@liberaljudaism.org W: lpjc.org.uk

Eastbourne Liberal Jewish Community T: 01323 725 650 E: eljc@liberaljudaism.org W: eljc.org.uk

The Liberal Jewish Synagogue (St John’s Wood) T: 020 7286 5181 E: ljs@liberaljudaism.org W: ljs.org

The Montagu Centre 21 Maple Street London, W1T 4BE T: 020 7580 1663 E: montagu@liberaljudaism.org W: liberaljudaism.org

Liberal Judaism is the dynamic, cutting edge of modern Judaism. It reverences Jewish tradition, seeking to preserve the values of the past, while giving them contemporary force.

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The Liberal Synagogue Elstree T: 020 8953 8889 E: tlse@liberaljudaism.org W: tlse.org.uk Lincolnshire Jewish Community T: 01427 628 958 E: ljc@liberaljudaism.org W: lincolnshirejc.co.uk Manchester Liberal Jewish Community T: 08432 084 441 E: mljc@liberaljudaism.org W: mljc.org.uk North Herts Liberal Jewish Community (Stevenage) T: 01438 300 222 E: northhertsljc@gmail.com W: northhertsljc.org Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue T: 01923 822 592 E: npls@liberaljudaism.org W: npls.org.uk Norwich Liberal Jewish Community E: nljc@liberaljudaism.org W: www.norwichljc.org.uk Nottingham Liberal Synagogue T: 0115 962 4761 E: nls@liberaljudaism.org W: nottinghamliberalsynagogue.com

Peterborough Liberal Jewish Community T: 020 7631 9822 E: info@pljc.org.uk W: pljc.org.uk Reading Liberal Jewish Community T: 0118 942 8022 E: readingliberaljewishcommunity@ gmail.com W: www.readingljc.org.uk

Shenfield & Brentwood Synagogue T: 01277 888 610 E: tikvahchadasha@gmail.com W: roshtikvah.com

South Bucks Jewish Community T: 0845 644 2370 E: sbjc@liberaljudaism.org W: sbjc.org.uk South London Liberal Synagogue (Streatham) T: 020 8769 4787 E: slls@liberaljudaism.org W: southlondon.org Southgate Progressive Synagogue T: 020 8886 0977 E: sps@liberaljudaism.org W: sps.uk.com Suffolk Liberal Jewish Community (Ipswich) T:01473 250 797 E: sjc@liberaljudaism.org Wessex Liberal Jewish Community (Bournemouth) T: 01202 757 590 E: info@wessexliberaljudaism.org.uk W: wessexliberaljudaism.org.uk West Central Liberal Synagogue (Central London) T: 020 7636 7627 E: wcls@liberaljudaism.org W: wcls.org.uk Woodford Liberal Synagogue T: 020 8989 7619 E: info@woodfordliberal.org.uk W: woodfordliberal.org.uk Developing communities Weymouth, Portland and West Dorset E: wpwd@liberaljudaism.org York Liberal Jewish Community E: york@liberaljudaism.org Affiliated congregations Beit Ha’Chidush (Amsterdam) T: 00 31 23 524 7204 E: bhc.informatie@gmail.com W: beithachidush.nl Oxford Jewish Congregation T: 01865 515 584 E: progressive@ojc-online.org W: ojc-online.org

President Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein Chairman Lucian J Hudson Vice Chairs Simon Benscher and Jackie Richards Finance Rosie Ward Israel and the Diaspora Tamara Schmidt Communications Ed Herman Social Justice Amelia Viney Youth and Education Robin Moss National Officers Dr Howard Cohen, David Hockman, David Pelham and Ruth Seager Vice Presidents Monique Blake, Henry Cohn, Nigel Cole, Geoffrey Davis, Lord Stanley Fink, Jeromé Freedman, Louise Freedman, Rabbi Dr David Goldberg, 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 and Clive Winston Chair of Rabbinic Conference Rabbi Charley Baginsky Chief Executive Rabbi Danny Rich Outreach Director Rabbi Anna Gerrard Outreach Coordinator Abigail Jacobi Student & Young Adult Chaplain Rabbi Leah Jordan Education Rabbi Sandra Kviat Music Cantor Gershon Silins Interfaith Rabbi Mark Solomon Operations Director Shelley Shocolinsky-Dwyer PR Alexandra Ben-Yehuda Archivist Alison Turner LJY-Netzer Tom Francies, Tamara Silver and Gabriel Webber