Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah Q1: How have your intersecting identities affected your (faith) leadership? Back in the late 1970s, I was a lesbian radical feminist separatist. Married to a man in 1975, I came out in 1978. A Marxist during my undergraduate studies as a Sociology student at LSE, after I graduated in 1977, I […]
Thinking in Twos In recent years, we have become more aware of the extent to which we make sense of the world in terms of binaries; that is, in ways which split our perception and experience of the world into oppositional, mutually excluding categories. To name just the two most common binaries: good and evil; male and female. When splitting […]
Elli to Andrew: Andrew: It is an honour for me to share this dialogue sermon with you. The theme of this year’s conference is ‘Breaking Down Walls’, as Liberal Judaism continues to explore ways of making our movement as inclusive as possible. After a lifetime of service to Liberal Judaism, you are President of the […]
Introduction: Why a radical feminist Jewish lesbian decided to train for the Rabbinate Good evening everyone. Thank you, Nigel for inviting me to speak to you all this evening. I’m going to begin with a sobering backdrop to our lives and take you back briefly to that devastating time over 75 years ago. One third […]
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 say a […]
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 […]