Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah 31 March 2018 It’s Pesach, when we eat matzah, the unleavened bread that simultaneously expresses our slave ancestors’ hasty departure from Egypt – their dough having no time to rise1 – and the ‘affliction’ they endured in ‘the house of bondage’. As we read in Aramaic … Read More
[Sermon] What’s in a Name and a Date? National Holocaust Memorial Day and Remembrance of the Sho’ah
Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah 17 January 2018 Today is rather complex. We are celebrating Shabbat, our weekly opportunity for rest and renewal. It is also National Holocaust Memorial Day, the day set aside by the British government since the millennium for remembrance of the Holocaust, and for educational activities about … Read More
Ruth reads from the Torah for the first time… aged 96
21 August 2017 Birmingham Progressive Synagogue (BPS) member and Holocaust survivor Ruth Shire read from the Torah for the first time, at the age of 96, in front of a packed BPS sanctuary. In a moving D’var Torah, in front of a packed synagogue, Ruth explained how she had not … Read More
Mayor of Kolín joins Northwood for Memorial Shabbat
24 April 2017 People from around the world took part in a Memorial Shabbat at Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue (NPLS) to remember the Jews murdered in the Holocaust from the towns where the congregation’s Czech and Slovak Torah scrolls originated. An annual event, this year’s service focussed on Kolín, … Read More
Statement on the outcome of Ken Livingstone hearing
Simon Benscher, Chair of the Board of National Officers 5 April 2017 It is clearly offensive to invoke Hitler’s name in this context or to equate Zionism with Nazism. It is not only illegitimate, it is dangerous because it legitimises attacks on Jews. We acknowledge that there will be a … Read More
Commemorating the Kindertransport in Parliament
30 January 2017 Liberal Judaism’s senior rabbi, Rabbi Danny Rich, helped to rededicate a plaque commemorating the Kindertransport in the Houses of Parliament. Danny joined Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow, Lord Alf Dubs and Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, … Read More
Southgate’s Gerald awarded British Empire Medal for his Holocaust education work
16 January 2017 Gerald Granston, a long-standing member of Southgate Progressive Synagogue, has been awarded the British Empire Medal for his work in Holocaust Education Gerald, a Holocaust survivor, travels around the country speaking to schools and youth clubs about being a young child in Nazi Germany. He talks about … Read More
[Blog] There’s a very thin line between exercising power for the sake of the public, and exercising power for its sake
Rabbi René Pfertzel 14 October 2016 Le Blog Français, The Jewish Chronicle In my previous life in Normandy, I used to be a History teacher. Once, I brought my students to the local archives in Evreux, a middle-sized city located south from Rouen. We wanted to study the archives related … Read More
Liberal youth join March of the Living
21 April 2016 Five young Liberal Jews joined 11,000 people from around the world taking part in this year’s March of the Living. The March of the Living is an annual educational program, which brings students from all over the globe to Poland, in order to study the history of … Read More
Yvette Cooper joins Rabbi Harry Jacobi in refugee call
21 April 2016 Rabbi Harry Jacobi has given testimony to the House of Commons about his refugee journey to the UK, escaping Nazi persecution in May 1940, in order to help politicians understand the experience of today’s young refugees. Harry spoke powerfully alongside former Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Lord … Read More