The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, 26th July 2011

In an unusual first, cricket loving David Goldberg, Rabbi Emeritus of The Liberal Jewish Synagogue, has taken part in BBC Radio’s Test Match Special. He was a guest of the programme during the lunch interval on the final day of the first Test against India at Lord's, a match of important anniversaries and landmarks for the famous cricket ground and the synagogue.

He was speaking to the BBC’s Jonathan Agnew – who said it was the first time he had ever interviewed a rabbi - about the links between Lord’s and The LJS which face each other across St. John’s Wood Road in North West London. The synagogue celebrates its centenary this year and Lord’s was playing host to the 2000th Test Match and the hundredth Test between England and India.

Rabbi Goldberg said his love of cricket is so strong that it is said of him that while he never preaches for more than 15 minutes he cuts this to 10 on the Saturday of a Lord’s Test Match. He also recounted the old joke about The LJS: “Our detractors say it’s on St John’s Wood Road but not on the Lord’s side.”

He told how Sir Pelham ( Plum) Warner, the Grand Old Man of English cricket, and The LJS’s first rabbi, Israel Mattuck, were great friends and lunched regularly together. Rabbi Goldberg speculated, “they probably had learned discussions about the Talmudic interpretation of the LBW law”.

In November 1940 an enemy plane dropped a bomb on the synagogue and for a while services were held in the Lord’s pavilion.

Rabbi Goldberg also spoke of once sitting at the first game of the season between the MCC and the county champions in freezing April weather with the legendary cricket writer Sir Neville Cardus; refusing to let the 1984 West Indies touring side – which included Clive Lloyd and Viv Richards  - move their coach off the synagogue’s forecourt where it was parked until he had the autographs of the entire West Indies team and a special one for his son Rupert from Viv Richards; and how he had to gently reject the hopeful suggestion of a fanatical former synagogue chairman that they move the Jewish New Year service from the Saturday when it clashed with a Gillette Cup final to a Sunday!   

Rabbi Goldberg quipped, “This for me is the consummation of my career. Meeting the Pope, being honoured by Her Majesty the Queen, meeting the Dalai Lama, all that pales into insignificance compared to being here, being interviewed by you and having this amazing view of this amazing ground”.