Simon Rocker 10 October 2013 Jewish Chronicle The president of Liberal Judaism has called on the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council to renew efforts to unite into a single body. Lucian Hudson said that last week’s decision by JLC chief executive Jeremy Newmark to step down for … Read More
Liberal leader advocates ‘Federation’ with Reform
Simon Rocker 10 November 2011 The Jewish Chronicle Liberal Judaism chair Lucian Hudson has called for a closer alliance with the Reform movement, suggesting they combine forces in a joint federation. Writing in the latest issue of the Liberal newsletter, LJ Today, Mr Hudson said he wanted to go beyond … Read More
Give terminally-ill right to die, says rabbi
Simon Rocker 27 January 2011 The Jewish Chronicle People with terminal illnesses should be helped to die if they do not want to go on living, according to the chief executive of Liberal Judaism. Rabbi Danny Rich made the case when he gave evidence last week to the independent Commission … Read More
Debate over Jewish guidelines for organ donation crosses the Atlantic
Michael Goldfarb 26 January 2011 The Jewish Forward The controversy over what is dead according to Jewish law is no longer an intramural question among Orthodox rabbis on either side of the Atlantic. In Britain it is now being played out in public. As in the United States, the emotional … Read More
Rabbi appears via video-link
Jay Grenby 14 October 2010 The Jewish Chronicle A little matter like the 5,000 miles temporarily separating Rabbi Pete Tobias from his religion school pupils at The Liberal Synagogue Elstree wasn’t going to stop him taking the weekly service. Despite his absence from Hertfordshire on a visit to his son … Read More
Don’t let dogma divide us
Lucian J Hudson 13 October 2010 The Guardian The faultline is deepening between those who see themselves as having a faith and those who do not. And it is deepening in part because of a mistaken perception one side has of the other: that only one world view can prevail. … Read More
Writer pens Etrog mystery for Succot
Jay Grenby 21 September 2010 The Jewish Chronicle Prolific author and broadcaster Rabbi Pete Tobias has made a first foray into the realm of children’s books with the publication of The Secret of the £5 Etrog, in time for Succot. The paperback, illustrated by cartoonist Paul Solomons, is aimed at … Read More
Waiting nervously for waves from Gaza
Rabbi Pete Tobias 2 June 2010 The Guardian The Israeli assault on the Gaza flotilla will make waves that extend far beyond the Mediterranean coastline where the bloody events took place. And those waves will reach me, my community and then all of us. The first wave will touch me … Read More
Liberal chief hits out at religious ‘anti-democracy’
6 May 2010 The Jewish Chronicle Liberal Judaism chief executive Rabbi Danny Rich condemned religious coercion and sectarianism in his address to the movement’s biggest biennial conference, held in Gloucestershire. Addressing an audience of over 300, he said that some religious followers have “declared in both word – and frequently … Read More
Death need not disorient us
Lucian J Hudson 6 March 2010 Around 70% of people say they want to die at home, yet around 60% currently die in hospital. Why is there such a discrepancy between hope and reality? The speed of life in the 21st century creates a momentum that makes us oblivious to … Read More