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