22 November 2016 On the 20 November, Rabbi Danny Rich became the first leader of Liberal Judaism (Chair, Senior Rabbi and/or Chief Executive) to address the UK Board of Deputies. In the meeting he highlighted the historical relationship between Liberal Judaism and the Board – key moments including the 1949 … Read More
A response to the election of Donald Trump
By Rabbi Alexandra Wright Co-Chair of Liberal Judaism’s Rabbinic Conference This week is a week of sombre anniversaries: Kristallnacht – the Pogrom of 9 November 1938 when Nazi hoards across cities and towns in Germany and Austria desecrated, looted and burned over 1,200 synagogues, Jewish shops, businesses and homes, when … Read More
Liberals take action as Calais camp closes
25 October 2016 Liberal Jewish rabbis and members were part of a number of important Citizens UK actions for refugees over Sukkot. Liberal Jews, working alongside those of all and no faith, were seeking to ensure that unaccompanied children would continue to arrive from France, despite the clearance of the … Read More
Find out more about Syria at South London event
21 October 2016 On Thursday November 24, from 7.30pm, South London Liberal Synagogue (SLLS) will be hosting an event titled ‘Syria: how did we get to where we are and where next?’ The evening will be hosted by Shashank Joshi, who will give a talk on the situation in the … Read More
Liberal Jews and Muslims stand together in Durham
18 October 2016 Members of Durham’s Jewish and Muslim communities came together to support police as part of National Hate Crime Awareness Week. Hundreds of pledges were signed by members of the public, of all ages, promising to tackle and prevent hate crimes. Have Fleming, spokesperson for the Durham and … Read More
[Radio] Aaron tackles topics from Trump to Sukkot in BBC interview
17 October 2016 Rabbi Aaron Goldstein spoke about a myriad of issues as he reviewed the papers on BBC Three Counties Radio. Aaron, who is rabbi at Northwood & Pinner Liberal Synagogue, discussed topics including Donald Trump, unaccompanied child refugees, Bob Dylan and the use of religious language in secular … 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
Join the Human Rights Shabbat Programme
2 October 2016 A dozen Liberal communities have already signed up to take part in the René Cassin Human Rights Shabbat Programme for 5777. René Cassin – a charity working to promote and protect universal human rights, drawing on Jewish experience and values – has run the project for the … Read More
A tribute to Shimon Peres
28 September 2016 It will be with undoubted sadness that Liberal Jews will learn of the death overnight of Shimon Peres, who died in the early hours of this morning, surrounded by his family. Peres suffered a stroke two weeks ago and, despite significant improvement, his condition rapidly deteriorated yesterday. … Read More
Jewish schools: End of 50 per cent cap is a bad idea
Rabbi Danny Rich 16 September 2016 The Jewish Chronicle Leadership is sometimes about the difficulty between principle and practice, the balance between maintaining one’s pure values and the pragmatism of working with others to achieve the possible. The question of faith schools for the Liberal Jew may be such a scenario. … Read More