From Rabbi Rebecca
This week I wanted to share a thank you letter to you. Never in a million years would I have anticipated this birthday would be accompanied by such generosity from my synagogue.
Truly I was rendered speechless when a group of FPS folk gathered at my garden gate in the rain last Shabbat afternoon and presented this extraordinary cake and the plethora of gifts you gathered for me. You even listen to my sermons; these tiny models of books are all pages I quote from.
We are having great joy unpacking our new garden sofa, around a fire pit (how did you know we had been longing for such things?) New garden lights are being hung and I see no reason why we couldn’t squeeze in here for a Shabbat service one balmy day, or at least Havdalah. You donated in my name to a beloved collective philanthropy project that helps and supports women and girls in London. You even gave me two nights away, (mid week of course) in a hotel in deepest darkest Somerset with a beautiful restored garden. I have much to be grateful for, but these loving gifts have totally humbled me. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Rafael made a toast at our (small!) birthday dinner and ended saying “You must be an ok rabbi, Mummy, because your congregation has done such nice things for you.” Last Shabbat Dean sang Bob Dylan’s Forever Young “May you always do for others; And let others do for you.” And goodness how you have. Thank you for your kindness, and thoughtfulness; accompanying me as I mark this milestone, a half a century, as I keep being reminded! Yaaloz libi the psalmist wrote, my heart leaps for joy. (Psalm 28:7)
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
Click on this image to see Elliott’s story
MESSAGE FROM RABBI REBECCA
Communities are rightly proud of their children. Jewish tradition urges us to nurture the next generation, and indeed each generation. L’dor va’dor we sing each Shabbat morning, generation to generation. Teach this (whole thing of Judaism) to your children v’shinantam l’vanecha so says the Shema prayer. And Talmud Berachot when it insists children are like builders in what they create:
Rabbi Elazar said Rabbi Hanina said: Torah scholars increase peace in the world, as it is said: ‘And all your children [banayich] shall be taught of Adonai, and great shall be the peace of your children.’ (Isa. 54:13) Do not read your children [banayich], but your builders [bonayich].” -Talmud Brakhot 64a
So it’s pretty clear, generations matter. Not just families and ‘your’ children but the future of all communities. Elliott Karstadt, Dr Elliott Karstadt actually, is a child of this congregation. His parents Lyn and Philip Karstadt raised all three of their children Elliott, Lauren and Jonathan within our congregation (Lauren is my Rafael’s favourite teacher ever, ever.) Elliott was taught in Ivriah, directed to Bar Mitzvah by the legendary Tzvi Rosenwasser. He continued and became a teacher for the next generation of children. He taught both at Ivriah and Jewish Studies GCSE here at FPS. He teaches adults and has been an integral part of the Delving into Judaism community. He was part of early Shabbat Resouled and has maintained that connection and commitment despite these past five years of learning and serving Reform and Liberal communities across the UK.
This Shabbat is a joy not just for his family but for us his synagogue. Elliott will become a rabbi next Wednesday. It should have been on July 5th with all the pomp and ceremony of all ordinations. Our Dean Staker was to present him and I was to ordain him. But during these extraordinary times we will have a small, distanced private ceremony next week.
It is one of the greatest privileges I’ve known to be Elliott’s ordaining rabbi. Moses is told ; charge Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him…. I imagine these words addressed to me for Elliott. And I will do so with your love and pride also.
Shabbat Shalom and do join us for this service.
Rabbi Rebecca
MESSAGE FROM RABBI REBECCA
This portion of Mattot-Maasei, the last in the Book of Numbers, mentions cities of Refuge; arei miklat feels pertinent this week. Originally envisaged as a safe place for those who had caused accidental death; where they’d be protected from vigilantes before they went through the justice process. Invariably modern commentary considers their contemporary application. Miklat comes from gather. What makes our community a place of refuge and safety? What makes our community a place that is fair and just for all members to be equally ‘at home’? Last night’s well attended Beit Midrash considered just this. Our own Elijah Michael and the two guest speakers; Madeline Young and Lia Grant challenged us.
We have identified ten steps for our synagogue intended to address two differentiable but related issues – ensuring that we are a fully welcoming and inclusive community for Jews of colour and ensuring that we are an actively anti-racist community. As our Honorary Secretary Tamara Joseph explains; It is not at this stage a considered and developed strategy or plan, but it is a place to start. As Rabbi Charley Baginsky said at the LJ Community Briefing about this, “I am sorry that we are at the beginning, but we are at the beginning.”
Our first stage emerging from last night is to establish a working group which reports to council to undertake a systematic review and evaluation of FPS’s practice between now and Rosh Hashanah as an act of Teshuvah so that by Rosh Hashanah we are ready to set out a programme of action for the following year. We have identified realistic and critical goals. If you are ready to join this important and timely work tell me.
For now I wish you Shabbat Shalom, all of you and a moment of peace and difference for those 24 hours.
Rabbi Rebecca
MESSAGE FROM RABBI REBECCA
It has been a busy week. An amazing moment of political activism yesterday at our neighbouring Kenwood Care Home, recording a request along with many other Care Homes for Government to commit to the LIVING WAGE for carers. Fair PAY, safe PROTECTIVE gear and EQUALITY with the NHS. Our own Deb Hermer, Margot Katz and Tamara Joseph were instrumental to this. It was beyond moving and I was proud of our community leading the call for a decent and dignified wage for these essential workers.
And now this Shabbat our wonderful Kabbalat Torah group graduate and lead us in both services. The portion Balak is perfect for them; It was Balaam’s (talking) donkey that made him, the professional soothsayer turn his curse into a blessing for the Israelites. –Mah Tovu Ohalecha Yaacov, Mishkanotecha Yisrael …How good are your tents O Jacob , your dwelling places O Israel.
It’s often from the most unlikely source that we hear how precious something is. Tune in this weekend to hear our teenager’s words of appreciation for this community…
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
MESSAGE FROM RABBI REBECCA
I managed a few days off Zoom this week; and it was refreshing. Except for Delving into Judaism and Rosh Chodesh I had a break from screens; it was very welcome and I benefitted, as did the garden and my reading list. I was able to attend to both.
But screens and connectivity have also been our lifeline, and may continue to be for a while. As we navigate and negotiate what this slow and tentative easing of restrictions may look like I want to reassure everyone that I and synagogue Council/Board are being careful and cautious, following Government guidelines and those created in response by Liberal Judaism.
For those of you who have not yet tried our online services they have been surprisingly successful and even personal. Attendance has grown at all synagogue events, not just services, and community has grown tighter, I am certain. Nothing will stop as of yet as we work out how and when we might safely and inclusively return to our building. Please try a service if you have not already and if you need help to do so, we are happy to arrange that.
I’m proud of how adaptive we have been as a community, how much joy and poignancy we have managed in communal prayer when we have been in separate places.
I note with irony Moses gets into big trouble this week because he failed to ‘trust in’ God. It encouraged me even more to sustain the trust inside FPS that we are looking after everyone and the services, learning and justice we hold so dear. We are all so enthusiastic to be back at 54 Hutton Grove but it is not yet that time.
Shabbat Shalom to everyone,
Rabbi Rebecca
MESSAGE FROM RABBI REBECCA
As so often Torah echoes real life, or is the other way round?
Rav Lechem, you’ve taken too much says Korach an envious Levite to his leader Moses.
Of course Moses is a humble man but his elevation to supreme leader was swift and endorsed all the way by God.
Korach’s challenge is considered by most Torah commentators unilaterally as audacious jealousy, fuelled by egotism. Disagreements a la Korach are the worst and should never be copied. But this week in our study we agreed that envy, displacement and desire for a role is familiar and sometimes even understandable.
All the people are holy Moses insists. And that we appreciated.
There is no equivalence between characters at all! ( I can’t stress that enough) But I can’t help but notice the extraordinary action a Premier footballer directed this week in parliament. Government was forced to recognise wisdom and common sense coming from outside the corridors of Westminster. Marcus Rashford led a spectacular u-turn that means children from poor homes will receive lunch vouchers during this long summer, coming as it does after months of closed schools. It will make a huge difference to many families. Challenge is sometimes very, very good.
Commitment to read Torah in light of current events only serves to deepen my Jewish connections. I think this is especially now in these strange times, as we are isolated but connected; wanting so much to extract meaning from life around us. Judaism should be that.
On Tuesday we will have a Zoom event listening to those with experiences of loved ones cared for as they advocate for a Living Wage for Carers. Margot Katz, Mary Huttrer and Alison Pilpel will join Deb Hermer from 7-8.15pm.
This is in line with Citizens UK national campaign to provide the real Living Wage to Carers. Archbishop Sentamu said carers need PPE – Proper Pay, Proper Protection & Equality with the NHS.
Thursday 2nd July will see us completing an action with fellow Barnet Citizens ‘blessing’ a local Care Home as we lobby hard for this change. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu argued; “There comes a point where we need to stop pulling people out the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in ….”
Join us for a gentle and familiar FPS Shabbat with Shabbat Resouled and Shabbat morning tomorrow. Truly a pause in business and moment for stillness.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rebecca
MESSAGE FROM RABBI REBECCA
I wanted this week to share the words of our member Elijah Michael, writing for him and his brother, Benji. I’m immensely proud of his eloquence and what he shares with us. Shabbat Shalom to you all.
This is my take on what it’s like being black and Jewish. This is the same for Benji also.
In an article by the Jewish Chronicle in 2019 about the experience of young, black Jews – which is my demographic – the common theme throughout was that they experienced ignorance but not necessarily racism and I’d argue that is the same for myself. 99.9% of my experience of being black in the Jewish community has been positive and uplifting. However, there have been cases which need to be addressed. One remotely ignorant comment that I’ve become almost numb to is “you don’t look Jewish”. I don’t perceive it as explicit racism, but I do regrettably perceive it as the internalising of the racist trope that all Jews are hook-nosed, no taller than 5’5″ and engrossed by the prospect of vast monetary wealth. It also reflects an imaginary idea that I’m not typically Jewish by a specific ‘standard’ simply because I’m a person of colour, which is rather ridiculous. Another I come across is “do you play basketball?” which I’ve received from a few of the older members of the congregation. Whilst it is a racial stereotype, I am aware that in the context of the scenario they weren’t intending any offence and most likely meant it as a compliment and I am also conscious that this is as much attributed to my tall height (6’2″) as it is to my skin colour. They shouldn’t be chastised for it, but educated as to why that is offensive and how it resembles an unpleasant cliché that pigeonholes me based on my skin colour.
Often I find myself sticking out in most Jewish settings throughout life; whether it be JSoc, school or synagogue and the only thing I ask is that I am treated as a normal human being. I have noticed that there is a certain glamour associated with my skin colour and often when I mention to another Jewish person that I am also a Jew, a tumultuous delight about me ignites in them. 1 in 2 Jews in Israel are of colour and you are as likely to come across a person of Ethiopian descent with a yarmulke on their head as you are a Chasid with a streimel. Black Jews are not the unicorns they’re often perceived to be and it is something that needs to be made more of.
It must be said that in light of the recent events of America, it fills me with pride that the Jewish community – regardless of sect or domination – has rallied in rigorous support of the black community and the black Jews within the community in the face of racism rearing its ugly head again.
And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Kushite woman he’d married…(Numbers 12:1) This moment our Torah portion Be’ha’alotecha may or may not have been early racism. Or perhaps it was something entirely different. Either way it gives pause.
We know we WANT to be doing – and this is what we WILL be doing – working with Citizens UK calling for the living wage for all essential workers, many of whom come from BAME backgrounds, this is a start. Please watch out for and join in this. If you want to donate these charities are doing essential work in the community. 100 Black Men of London mentors young leaders. Mama Youth Project provides training courses for enabling new faces and backgrounds into media positions.
But now what we SHOULD do is take a step back and LEARN and READ. Angela Davis wrote; It is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.
This week I started to re-read Toni Morrison’s Beloved. I also just ordered The Good Immigrant: 21 Writers Explore What It Means To Be Black, Asian, And Minority Ethnic In Britain Today edited by Nikesh Shukla, so critical to understand the lives of those settling in this country.
I am thinking of how we as a community can engage with this work of seeing and calling out racism around us so all live with dignity and justice. But first I am listening and I am reading. This is Jewish work for us.
We know this is not new. There have been countless occasions of racist brutality in the US and truthfully here too. There is a new energy and attention now. Albie Sachs, veteran anti apartheid campaigner and South African Constitutional Court Justice, spoke this week on anti-racist protests to PM’s Evan Davies.
See it , he suggested, not just as a duty but as an opportunity. I loosely quote; As you fight for human justice, you become more human and more just. This is our Jewish work now, this is the Jewish story. Not looking for parallel experiences of anti Jewish rhetoric and offence but rather to be concerned with our neighbour.
Look at this essay Religion and Race written by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel in 1963 at the height of the Civil Rights protests . But it could be this week.
People are increasingly fearful of social tension and disturbance. However, so long as our society is more concerned to prevent racial strife than to prevent humiliation, the cause of strife, its moral status will be depressing, indeed.
Equality as a religious commandment means personal involvement, fellowship, mutual reverence and concern. It means my being hurt when [a black person] is offended. It means that I am bereaved whenever a [a black person] is disfranchised.
Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home,
She stood in tears amid the alien corn;
The poet John Keats thinks of Ruth’s nostalgia in his Ode to a Nightingale. But the way we are taught, Ruth was not homesick; she was looking forward and she was desperate to be accepted and included and welcomed. Although born a Moabite she becomes an Israelite and is the ancestor of King David, who came into the world because of what Ruth creates in her loyalty to her mother in law Naomi and finding Boaz her second husband.
Everything changes, Naomi (pleasantness) becomes Mara (bitterness) and back to pleasure again. Ruth was a stranger, desperate for acceptance and finds home and family. Famine ends, a baby is born and a Moabite (the most despised tribe) becomes an Israelite. Everything shifts just like we recognise nowadays when things change and we have second chances. We are always looking forward to what may be.
This, just like Pesach, will be Shavuot (meaning literally weeks) with a huge difference. The 49 days we have marked since Seder night culminate for us tonight with Shavuot; service and study and, I guess, acknowledges the changes we have moved through. And how most of us spend our lives looking to be known, recognised and accepted. The wonderful attendance at our services, learning, discussions and morning meditations attest to that.
This year our ‘Shavuot with a difference’ on zoom just like Seder was, includes welcoming Rabbi Rene Pfertzel & Kingston Liberal Synagogue to our study evening tonight. And tomorrow we will join Rabbi Margaret Jacobi & Birmingham Progressive Synagogue for Shavuot morning service. I anticipate all of it to be special.
We have some fabulous sessions tonight – do join us even if you have never fancied Shavuot before.
Wishing you Chag Sameach, a joyful Shavuot.
Rabbi Rebecca
Rafael, my youngest son and I visited Rome last Autumns. Such memories feel a life time ago. We cycled part of the Appian way. It was idyllic as you can imagine but the most extraordinary sight for us was a stone set at the edge of the Appian cobbled path outside an old villa-engraved with the names Barich Zabda Valerian Akiva…Our guide, not knowing who we were, enthusiastically told us the name was Jewish attached to the slave holder’s. As a former slave so keen to be noted, seen and counted he had paid for the stone and his engraved name before he died. And centuries later Rafael and I saw it and noted.
I think of this now this Shabbat as we begin BaMidbar /Numbers the fourth book of Torah opening with the census of the people. The taking of the census is potentially dull -a list of names. “Take a census [S’u et rosh–literally, “Lift up the head”] of the whole Israelite community.” The word s’u is only used when the intention is to indicate greatness [that is, holding high one’s head]. (Nachmanides on Numbers 1:2) The census demonstrates that it’s each individual that makes up a community. Rabbi Louis Jacobs z’l taught us rabbinic students at Leo Baeck College and wrote in his Torah commentary of BaMidbar-lists of names may seem dull but in actual fact when you read the phone book-rather like a census-each Brown/Smith or Cohen contains their own stories and individuality. Italian commentator Sforno of the 15th c anticipated him“According to the number of names…” For at that time, every one of that generation was designated by his name, which indicated and reflected stature and character. (Sforno on Numbers 1:2).
We have survived as we have from our founders’ hope at the beginning of the 20th c. And through these extraordinary weeks that see all of us over 800 of us gathering this weekend…Being counted is critical. Being seen and being part of. LJ has grown and developed by recognising all who count themselves as being part of this community-we’ve expanded who counts from Biblical times. Each individual ameliorates our movement and we are greater together than just the sum of our parts. We know that showing up for each other and our values is the ultimate way of being counted. Showing up to be counted. Lily Montagu, our founder, anticipated this moment of us gathering as communities within Liberal Judaism this weekend;
there is no reason why we should be unhappy about the future, since the best people will always look for the best in life and get together in search of it’ (Rose 1959).
Rabbi Rebecca Birk
Copyright © 2026 Finchley Progressive Synagogue. All rights reserved. Website designed by Addicott Web. | Charity #1167285