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When I was a child, one of the high points of the year was attending the family Seder held at the home of my mother’s closest sister, Vicky and her husband Bernard, who didn’t have any children. What made it special first and foremost was the fact that it was the only night of the […]
As an undergraduate student at LSE (1974-77), I took a course-unit degree in Sociology, which involved studying three subjects each year – plus writing a 10,000-word dissertation on a theme of one’s choice in the 3rd year. One of the best things about how it worked from my exam-phobic perspective, was that students were examined […]
Yesterday, it was Purim – actually, according to tradition, today is Purim for those living in walled cities like Jerusalem. On Erev Shabbat, we enjoyed the wonderful Purim Spiel written by Stan Baker – and despite being unable to gather together as we did at Purim last year, nevertheless, in the cacophony that is characteristic […]
Dearest Friends, It’s so very kind of you to arrange this Zoom hour with me – in particular, since the ongoing coronavirus crisis and the additional demands it has placed on me in my role as Rabbi has meant that I’ve not been able to attend executive meetings for several months. I would like to […]
First reported to the World Health Organisation in December 2019 following its detection in Wuhan province in China, it has been a year now since COVID-19 became a global pandemic. And so, this year of the coronavirus has also spanned the cycle of the Jewish months from Nisan through Adar – as well as all […]
It has been quite a week for milestones connected to the issues that have dominated the news during the past year. On Monday, it was Martin Luther King Day in the United States, held each year on the third Monday in January to mark the birthday of Martin Luther King Junior on January 15, 1929[1]. Dr […]
January in the far reaches of the northern hemisphere tends to be a grim month. Darkness seems pervasive – and then, as the month wanes, National Holocaust Memorial Day on the 27th, inaugurated in the UK in 2000. As we contemplate the devastating horrors of the Sho’ah, we may feel overwhelmed. How can we fathom […]
This year, January 27th will be a complex moment: both, International Holocaust Memorial Day and Tu Bishvat, the New Year for trees – so, a day for commemorating the horrors of the Sho’ah and a day for celebrating new life. On the surface, the contradiction could not be greater. But when we turn to the […]
Five years ago, exactly – to the day – on 12th December 2015, Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue marked one of the most momentous milestones since its foundation as a congregation 80 years earlier in 1935. And like today, it was also Shabbat Chanukkah. I will never forget the look on people’s faces as they […]
Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah – SJN December 2020 This year, Chanukkah begins on the evening of 10th December, corresponding to the 25th of Kislev. Commemorating the rededication in 164 BCE of the Temple in Jerusalem desecrated by the Assyrian Greeks, Chanukkah is a celebration of the triumph of hope. The Maccabean guerrilla campaign to re-establish […]
