What a week it has been. For those twenty-two families, whose loved ones were killed when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives at 10:30 PM on Monday evening in the foyer of the Manchester Arena; for the more than one hundred individuals injured, many of them critically, and their families; in a moment of terrifying […]
REMEMBERING YEHUDA AMICHAI, Z”L During May, we mark the anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, corresponding to 5 Iyyar 5708. It was also in May – on 3 May 1924 – that one of Israel’s greatest poets was born: Yehuda Amichai. Like many of his contemporaries, he was […]
We are what we eat! A soundbite – please excuse the pun – but very true. During the last few decades, obesity has become a growing problem in the more prosperous nations across the world – not least, here in Britain. For quite a long time, the over-consumption of fatty foods was seen as the […]
On Wednesday afternoon, three people were killed and 40 were injured, some of them seriously, when a terrorist ploughed the car he was driving into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, and then went on to stab a police officer on duty at the Houses of Parliament.[1] Sadly, one of the critically injured has since died. Just […]
There has been a lot in the news recently about law. As soon as he got into office, President Trump started signing a series of ‘executive orders’ to put his campaign promises into practice. The executive order that has hit the headlines concerns the banning of any immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries.[1] More of […]
A ‘Reality TV’ star has become President of the United States. Is it a joke? When ‘President Trump’ was featured on ‘The Simpsons’ in the year 2000 the spectre was supposed to make us laugh – and perhaps also, to make us think… In an episode, entitled, ‘Bart to the Future’, Bart Simpson is subjected […]
What does the future hold? A perennial question. This year – 2016 – feels like a watershed: as terror continued to reign across Europe,[1] the European Union referendum campaign culminated in the murder of MP Jo Cox by a far right extremist on 16 June and the Brexit vote a week later; and then came […]
During the past week, the draft November diary was circulated for comment and amendment. I noticed that it included two different ways of specifying the time: a.m. and p.m. on the one hand, and the 24-hour clock on the other. Like most people, I favour consistency, so the question arose, which method to use? It […]
Do you remember the 1971 film, ‘Death in Venice’, directed by Luchino Visconti? Aged 16 at the time, I went to see it with my parents at the Curzon Cinema in Mayfair – one of their favourite haunts. I will never forget the shots of the principal character, a writer, played by Dirk Bogarde, his […]
MAKING SENSE OF CHURBAN (DESTRUCTION): A LIBERAL JEWISH REFLECTION ON TISHAH B’AV | 20th August 2016
Last Saturday evening, a group of us gathered to commemorate Tishah B’Av, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It was on the 9th of Av in 586 BCE that the Babylonians destroyed the city of Jerusalem, along with the first Temple. Significantly, centuries later, the Romans put the second Temple to the […]