Eagle-eyed stalkers may have noticed that I’ve been a bit quiet on the sermon front recently. So I should probably let you know – well, those of you who don’t have high-power telescopes trained on my house – what I’ve been doing. I’m on sabbatical! After three years’ work, rabbis (at least those whose employers…
Channukah is officially the most popular Jewish festival in the UK. According to research published last week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, 89% of British Jews participated in at least one Channukah candle-lighting last year, compared to only 84% who went to a seder and 74% who marked Rosh Hashanah.
As a Channukah treat, and in tribute to the great Victoria Wood z”l, I present a rare historical glimpse of a late-night conversation between David Woolf Marks (the UK’s first Reform rabbi) and Lily Montagu (the founder of Liberal Judaism) as they discuss the prospect of merging…
In the late 1990s, there were only two Jews left in Afghanistan: just to prove that they were Jewish, their names were Yitzchak Levi and Zabulon Simentov. They both lived in the remains of the synagogue in Kabul. And, of course, they hated each other’s guts. When the Taliban had one of its regular purges…
You may have noticed that, for the last few weeks, I’ve been wincing a bit during the prayer for the royal family. The furore around the Andrew formerly known as Prince – the grand ex-Duke of York – has somewhat dulled my enthusiasm to pray for the welfare of the Windsors. And yet…
Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber 