The Liberal Judaism Biennial Weekend 2008
The 2008 Liberal Judaism Biennial Weekend took place at the Tortworth Court Hotel near Bristol. The theme was “Creation and Creativity”. Exploring Arts and Sciences as Liberal Jews. The report below comes from Beatrice Sayers, editor of LJ Today.
The question of how scientific advances affect belief in God was one of the themes that informed Liberal Judaism’s Biennial Weekend, held at Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, from 4 to 6 April.
Rabbi David Goldberg, emeritus rabbi of The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, put forward the idea that as scientific research, for instance in the field of stem cells and human fertilisation, leaves less for us to understand simply as the will of God, our traditional images of God become less relevant. His paper provoked a lively and wide-ranging discussion, echoed in sessions by Rabbi Dr Margaret Jacobi, rabbi of Birmingham Progressive Synagogue, and Rabbi Mark Solomon, rabbi at the LJS.
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Delegates at the 2008 Biennial Weekend applaud the
closing speech by Rabbi Pete Tobias
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A participant at the chollah cover making session |
Nearly 300 Jews from Liberal synagogues across the country attended the weekend of speaker sessions and workshops, on the theme of ‘creation and creativity’, at which singer songwriter Judith Silver was musician-in-residence. Among the guest presenters were Professor Rafi Walden, assistant director at Sheba Hospita and a board member of Physicians for Human Rights – Israel, and Shelley Kedar, director of professional development of Jewish Educators at the Lokey Academy in Haifa. |
| Dr Mark Levene, a historian at Southampton University, was guest speaker at a panel discussion, ‘Climate Change: our response and respssonsibilities’. He advocated ‘contraction and convergence' in carbon emissions: developed countries must contract their output drastically while developing ones are allowed to increase theirs slowly until equilibrium is reached. This was the best available solution to help save the environment while not abandoning social justice.
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At the Gala Dinner on the Saturday night
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In a closing address to delegates, Rabbi Danny Rich told delegates that he was immensely proud to be chief executive of Liberal Judaism. The movement was doing more work than ever before, and involving itself in more projects. Above all, it had real confidence. |
The next Liberal Judaism Biennial Weekend will be in 2010
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