STANDING UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS – THIS MONTH, December 2016 This year Human Rights Day on 10 December coincides with Shabbat – a Shabbat that will be doubly special for us here at BHPS because we will be celebrating the Bat Mitzvah of one of our young people, Eve Murphy. Human Rights Day commemorates the […]
The Labour Party has become embroiled in a row about anti-Semitism. Why the row? After all, the Labour Party is committed to challenging racism and anti-Semitism – which is a particular form of racism. It’s a row because the anti-Semitism in question concerns anti-Zionism – and not everybody in the Labour Party agrees that anti-Zionism […]
What is a Jewish state? A state with a Jewish majority? A theocratic state governed by Jewish law? A democratic state governed by Jewish ethics? Perhaps, a Jewish state would combine all three elements? Of course, we are not speaking theoretically. Israel is understood by all parties, Jewish and non-Jewish, in Israel, in the diaspora […]
Jews never do anything by halves – particularly, when it comes to celebrations. As many of you will know, the Jewish New Year, Rosh Ha-Shanah, falls in the autumn – but actually, there are several new years in the Jewish calendar, including, the New Year for trees in the late winter and the New Year […]
Good evening, everyone. I feel honoured to be here with you all at Chichester Cathedral, participating in this extraordinary and moving moment of commemoration.[1] I have been invited to share a few thoughts with you about learning the lessons of the Holocaust. Let me begin with my family’s Holocaust story. I think I was no […]
Who’s a Jew? This question is a little disingenuous. We know that the halakhic definition of a Jew has been fixed for centuries: the child of a Jewish mother; and for centuries, the rabbinic arbiters of the halakhah have been deciding who belongs to the club and who doesn’t. And we know that ever since […]
My father’s family were refugees from Vienna, who fled just before World War II broke out, but not before my grandfather had been deported to Dachau. He remained incarcerated there from November 13, 1938, until January 19, 1939. He knew he had to leave Austria with his family. But leaving wasn’t easy. First, it meant […]
‘From Egypt until now’ (Numbers 14:19) Jewish life has centred on the community. Yet, at the heart of the origins of the people Israel, the story of the building of the first community in the wilderness reminds us of the crucial role played by individuals. Immediately after the closing scene of Revelation at the end of Mishpatim, which relates that ‘the glory of the Eternal dwelt (va-yishkon) on Mount Sinai’ (Exodus […]
Pride. Nowadays, all you have to do is say the word, and people immediately recognise it as shorthand for ‘LGBT Pride’. So, what is LGBT? On lesbian and gay pride demonstrations in the 1970s and early 1980s, the most common badge on display was the ‘pink triangle’ – in memory of the persecution of gay […]
I first got to know Sheila in 1982 when we were in a Jewish Lesbian group together for two years. In addition to that connection, which involved weekly gatherings, often at her home, I also worked for Onlywomen Press in 1983 – a unique publishing enterprise run by Lilian Mohin, together with a collective that […]