I wasn’t born into Liberal Judaism. I am a convert to it. I have truly chosen it for me, and then of course for my family. My parents even chose it too.
There are so many reasons why I admire the lineage of proud, curious Jews who wanted their heritage to be comprehensive, accessible and inspiring.
Maybe it was Lily Montagu’s plea for women to come down from the balconies in the early 1900s. Maybe it was Rabbi Harry Jacobi, spiritual Jew and committed activist becoming urgently involved to fight the cause of the refugee children, speaking on their behalf, visiting the camps, lobbying and kvetching to try to see justice being done. Or maybe it was Rabbi John Rayner, my much revered teacher at Leo Baeck College stating definitively and oh so persuasively ‘the past shall have a vote and not a veto’.
Yes I’m a Jew first and then a Liberal Jew but what a legacy of Liberal values to inherit. I’ve watched my children navigate a sense of belonging and encouragement from their youth movement, LJY Netzer. I have watched my teachers and those who’ve gone before me invest time and thoughtfulness in this legacy of Judaism and the contemporary Anglo version of Liberal Jewishness we all share now in our community. In the early years Hebrew was marginalised. Emotive and informal worship straightened out into something more decorous. But, and I see this as a great strength, over the past 120 years we’ve seen the need and desire for something different and so FPS along with other Liberal synagogues has adapted the early mores of the Jewish Religious Union, as was, and had the courage to change and develop customs as we have all grown these past century or so.
That’s why I am a proud Liberal Jew and a proud rabbi of a Liberal synagogue.
And I see how important it has been to all the families that find us and it becomes part of their Jewish story too.
We need to support and celebrate with the mothership, Liberal Judaism I mean. So consider joining me at our Day of Celebration next week Sunday 22nd May. We have much to be proud of. Anish Kapoor may even be there.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
Parashat Emor this week’s Torah portion talks about counting time. The holy convocations; the festivals we have breaking up the year, Shabbat which breaks the monotony of the working week. Remember the intense lock down experiences when days merged into each other? When so many of you articulated the benefit of Shabbat when our services would beam into your homes. Remember that when it felt like it was all we had to distinguish existence.
I appreciate this portion and its reminder of marking time. When the state of Israel was created, some time after three extra days were added to the Hebrew calendar. Yom HaShoah to recall victims of the Holocaust so pertinent and poignant to those building the new country of Israel. Yom HaZikaron to remember and honour fallen soldiers and civilians of Israel and lastly the day to celebrate its independence, separate from the British Mandate the new country and all its possibilities. I like to recall and remind myself of the Declaration of Independence-this paragraph particularly:
THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
The most hawkish to the most dovish Israelis and Jews will agree that tonight’s end of Yom Hazikaron merging into Yom Ha’Atzma’ut is a moment of respite from political yearnings, disappointments or change. It is twenty four hours to reflect and appreciate the good, the security that came after the Shoah, the pride and our connection as Jews to it.
Do join us for the most beautiful renditions of poetry and folk songs from Abigail & David Dolan and Elliot Levey (recordings as of course he is on stage at Cabaret) and then conversation and felafel dinner with Ambassador Taub long standing friend of Liberal Judaism.
Do join us if you can. And wishing you an early Shabbat Shalom.
Rebecca
You shall rise before the aged and show deference to the old: you shall fear your God: I am the Eternal.
You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favour the poor or show deference to the rich: judge your neighbour fairly.
You shall not hate your kinsman in your heart. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against your kinfolk. Love your neighbour’s welfare as if it were your own. I am the Eternal.
These are just some of the words of Kedoshim, the portion this Shabbat. It holds the blueprint for treating people well; for how to be a mensch. And how fitting then that this week should see us participating in Barnet Citizen’s Assembly when we called on our Council leadership for decent and better provisions for our fellow citizens; these will be clean air, better mental health support and signposting for our young people, the Living wage and more ambitious and integrated settling of refugees here in Barnet.
Our own Ofra Rosenwasser speaking at the Barnet Citizens Assembly
The opportunity to collaborate with other local (religious) institutions is critical and is in a sense Torah in action. We are in such significant days; Week Two of the Omer when we’ll count the days and connect to GEVURAH, our strength and resolve.
We marked Yom HaShoah and in so doing, as we did last Shabbat for our Czech Scrolls, we pay tribute to those who went before us and pledge to remember with strength and resolve. Our guest of honour was Janine Webber BEM, now a firm friend of our synagogue, so impressed is she by our commitment to relationship and care. Her second visit and she feels at home.
Such emphasis on relationships is both highly Jewish and very much part of the ethos we share with other Barnet institutions gathered in the Citizen’s alliance. Being in relationship means you will be loving your neighbour’s welfare as if it were your own. This is the word of the Eternal. I believe we will do so this week and leading into this Torah text on Shabbat. We felt proud of FPS and our direction of focus back as we honour and commemorate and forward as we pledge to new learning and responsibility.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
We are now on the journey of the OMER, the counting from Pesach/Passover to Shavuot the festival commemorating the receivng of Torah. But also the next harvest after Passover Spring harvest. Post Temple times no offering of sheafs of wheat (Omer) are offered, obviously, but we still count and mark the days and seven weeks. Kabbalistic and Hassidic teachers suggest that we read the Hebrew words “sefirat ha’omer,” the counting of the Omer, as “sefirot ha’omer,” the divine characteristics that permeate the world during the period of the Omer. Each of the seven weeks offers a reflection on personal attributes and qualities.
This week is Chesed, Lovingkindness. How appropriate as we finish Pesach and the story of redemption. How appropriate as we in the Jewish community respond to the injustice and inhales of the Home Office’s Rwanda plan. I spoke last night at the LJ@120 Education Series on Loving Your Neighbour as Yourself. Our plans to welcome Ukrainians into our homes are moving forward. Our love and gratitude for our Czech Scrolls and the world they connect us to will be commemorated this coming Shabbat 23rd April. And the fifteenth birthday of Shabbat Resouled celebrated on Friday night 22nd.
Ozi v’zimrat Yah V’yehi li l’ishuah….God is my light and my strength and my help we’ll read in the Song of the Sea on the last morning of Pesach this Friday.
Strong words. Wishing you strength and love.
Chag Pesach Sameach and Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
Min hameitzar karati Yah anani bemerkhav-yah, we read in Psalms 118:5, “I’m calling out to You from a narrow, a constricted place; respond to me with spaciousness.”
How do we get from our own meitzar/constriction to merkhav-yah/a spacious, expansive place of the spirit?
This is always relevant but especially now for Passover, known as the Season of Freedom Z’man Cheruteinu. The idea of expansion and redemption whether personal or collective is the blood that pumps through Pesach. Six months from Yom Kippur-a half way point of the year, we consider what transformations are possible.
For each one of us.
For our households, families, and those we love.
For our Jewish faith, identity and relationship to this Pesach, the first seder together in the synagogue for three years.
Our attitudes to prayer, to community to responding to each other and our congregation.
Our anguish and hope for those not safe – fleeing Ukraine with plastic shopping bags holding their lives, languishing in Afghanistan under a restrictive and punishing regime, the Uighar Muslims in China still persecuted and tormented for their faith and ethnicity. The recent deaths in Israel and the struggle for peace safety and security for all in Israel and the Palestinian territories. There are many, many ‘Pharaohs’ still. And this Passover we are so conscious of them.
When the Seder opens with the words Let All Who are Hungry Come and Eat... let us be reminded of our obligation to care for other. As we add sunflower seeds to our Seder plates. We are poised to welcome families and households fleeing from Ukraine. We continue to work towards a better settling of Afghanis and moving them out of their bridging hotels (some still there almost a year and some longer).
And many of us will attend Barnet Citizens Assembly with the Leader of the Council and neighbouring institutions as we commit to improving life in our wider community too.
Passover calls us to recall our Jewish collective identity. The diverse family of Jews we belong to as we tell our stories this Friday and Saturday nights. I like the reminder that all we do as Jews -the spiritual soul seeking, the building of community, the justice and kindness we want to build in the world- all of it is inspired by this Passover moment.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Pesach Sameah
Rabbi Rebecca
Pesach is now around the corner. The next milestone for us as Jews and so we direct ourselves towards it; practically we are taking bookings now for our first in-house communal seder for three years (book your place here) and emotionally as our congregation responds to the war in Ukraine. Some of our congregations have already welcomed refugees into their spare rooms.
I believe empathy is at the heart of Judaism. And that beating heart is our Passover story. You shall tell your child this is what God did for me taking me out of Egypt. This verse from Exodus is repeated in the Passover Seder and the memory of liberation and the experience of hardship is referenced every Shabbat. It is literally our life blood as Jews.
We Liberal Jews take seriously the kavannah, spiritual intention of our Jewish practice. So making Seder and Passover meaningful and relevant every year. We bring the world and all that has happened to our Seder tables.
How meaningful then our response to those fleeing Ukraine, as our response to refugees from Afghanistan and Syria. We are well placed to respond with real empathy and practical skills we’ve honed. And that’s why we at Liberal Judaism and in our constituent synagogues are responding to the need to open our homes and enable sanctuary for Ukrainians this Passover. We won’t rest till we have done our bit. Sign up here if you’re interested in hosting a Ukrainian refugee.
As Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe said on her return this week, if there are some not free, then none of us are. We take that message seriously.
So when we offer the works Halachmah Anya-Let all hungry come and eat it may be very real for us inspired as we are by psalm 118
Min hameitzar karati Yah, vanani v’merchav yah.
Out of a narrow place I called to you and you answered me with wide expansiveness.
We get to model this. And I so look forward to sharing this.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
The horror of this war continues. This week on International Women’s Day Rabbi Julia Gris joined us Liberal rabbis at our monthly conference. To hear what she is holding and managing, and what she and her daughter have lost is heartbreaking. As is the stories of countless others. Mike Freer MP joined us last Shabbat when our own Paul Anticoni spoke to us about his organisation WJR are helping the situation on the ground. Mike promised that our borders will open enough to allow Ukrainian refugees sanctuary here. Family, yes, but he anticipates a scheme for Faith institution to offer sponsorship and provide homing and care. I have had an overwhelming inbox, so many of you offering to help and house folk fleeing. Let’s keep writing those letters to your MPs and direct tzedakah to the agencies that are helping.
Managing our lives whilst being continually aware, vigilant and empathetic is important. The balance is there for us.
This week’s Parasha is VAYIKRA the first portion of Leviticus, meaning and [God] called. The Torah calls us to understand our own sense of calling, impulse and motivation. What our Judaism calls us to be and do. I think of Rabbi Lionel Blue’s prayer in old age, “Stick around, I need you”.
Our synagogue and our Judaism helps us make sense of the world as well as our own lives. From Monday is ‘British Sign Language Week’. I like this reminder of life being fuller, more varied and including more. We are investing time in learning and also connecting with Jewish Deaf Association. See Zoe’s blog piece. We are committed to ensuring our Inclusive services become embedded into our synagogue life.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
Our eyes are glued to images, which frankly are reminiscent of those eighty years ago. The writer, scholar and lawyer Professor Philippe Sands encapsulated that this week when he shared his own father’s experience of leaving Lviv. Tuesday saw the destruction of the Babi Yar memorial or the 33,771 Ukrainian Jews murdered in the rural ravine in Kyiv 1941. It is terrifying and all the appreciation of the strength, resilience and courage of the Ukrainians both soldiers and civilians does not minimise the intensity of the Russian attacks.
This week, like you I read of the last text message of a Russian soldier to his mother. “We were told they’d welcome us..” I found this both distressing and intensely moving.
As some of you know Rabbis Julia Gris and Tanya Sakhnovich are safely out of the Ukraine, more news of them soon. Rabbi Alex Duchovny continues to lead his community from Kyiv, even Shabbat services from the shelter. Click on the image to see his message to Jewish communities across the World Union.
We have an invitation to join our twinned community in Mogilev, Belarus for their candle lighting at 3.30pm tomorrow and to be in contact with Rabbi Grisha Abramovich. He appreciates our connection deeply.
Over Shabbat as we gather we have the opportunity to hear from two members who are working closely in the field.
Paul Anticoni leads World Jewish Relief and the disaster appeal they have launched. WJR works closely with elderly folk in Ukraine needing support. If you missed Wednesday’s event hosted by Emily Maitlis you will have a chance to hear from Paul during our Friday evening service about what is happening and how WJR are attempting to help.
For an extra and special Shabbat morning conversation in person and online our member Max Rebuck will be sharing his understanding of the conflict through media monitoring and speaking to Ukrainians in Ukraine and abroad to publish their stories during the conflict. Since Jan 2019 he’s been responsible for designing and delivering media development and counter-disinformation projects on the behalf of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office’s Russia Desk helping independent media in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and the Baltic States. Now working for Tortoise Media contributing to their journalism on the war.
Being informed and connected is what we need right now. I hope you will join us.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
This is grim day for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe.
Last week Rabbi Julia Gris joined us virtually from Odessa to speak of the Progressive community she has nurtured there. Today she is in the west in Lviv worried for her and her daughter Izolde’s safety. Indeed Liberal Judaism is trying hard to extend an invitation to them here by communicating with the British Embassy in the Ukraine.
Two other rabbis we know well are there trapped in Ukraine; Rabbi Alex Duchovny and Rabbi Tanya Sakhnovich who was visiting her son. They matter no more than all Ukrainian citizens thrown into an unprovoked war, but our intimacy with and knowledge of them makes this situation all the more awful.
People are already trying to cross into neighbouring Poland and other countries such as Slovakia.
Money and support are small gestures right now but for those feeling powerless it is something to do:
We are praying and watching with vigilance each hour of news from Kyiv and beyond.
There is something about the watching about the concern about the fear we are seeing played out on our news channels. The Torah twice refers to the night of the Seder as leil shimurim, a night that is guarded: It is a night that is guarded by God to take them (Israel) out of Egypt, this night remains to God a night that is guarded throughout the generations (Exodus, 12:42).
I think of that watching, of that guarding of that speaking out now.
I look forward to seeing you this Shabbat when we can be together.
Rebecca
This weekend marks the beginning of the anniversary year for Liberal Judaism, 120 years since its creation by the three famous ‘M’s; Israel Mattauck, Lily Montagu and Claude Montefiore. It kicks off with a shared service hosted by the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. Our President Paul Silver-Myer will represent us.
Anniversaries are strange events. They invite us to reflect and consider what passed in a celebratory way, even if we don’t feel part of that celebration particularly. Many of us have joined our congregation Finchley Progressive Synagogue over the years because it felt like the ‘the place’ for us, not necessarily because it is an outpost of Liberal Judaism. And there are also many that were our founding mothers and fathers creating our community as a Liberal Jewish congregation proudly and building it, brick by brick and idea by idea.
We have, grown and transformed over the years. Liberal Judaism has moved from Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues.
Creating a movement is brave and yields dividends. The initial intention for a fiercely intellectual and reasoned Jewish expression still stands and yet more has been added; more Hebrew and music and emotional connections and inclusive ideas of who belongs and an expansion of who we are as a Jewish people, into a Jewish family.
This week’s Torah portion contains the unedifying passage of the building of the golden calf, the wretched faithlessness of the people waiting for Moses and needing something tangible and easier to replace Moses and God’s leadership. I’ve often heard the appalling critique of Liberal Judaism being a distraction, a moment of idolatry even that confused and obfuscated the pure message of Judaism. Not only has this not been the case, its longevity and creativity point to its welcome addition to Jewish life and practice.
As Me’ah v’esrim is a traditional blessing on birthdays with hope for health and gathering of years. Liberal Judaism has done that.
There is much to be proud of. From Lily Montagu’s first essay Spiritual Possibilities of Judaism Today to our attempts now to ensure our Jewish practice has integrity, creativity and joy. As she captured so well 120 years ago. “There would be no value in worship services and symbols did they not… serve as aids to right living.”
What an excellent legacy.
We are inheriting well.
Shabbat Shalom and see you at LJS.
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