Tag: gabriel kanter-webber

Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber
Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue
Saturday 20 December 2025¹ — bar mitzvah of Albie

1. Channukah is officially the most popular Jewish festival in the UK. According to research published last week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research,² 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.
2. Now, as a matter of strict halachah, Channukah is a very minor festival. But it’s not exactly difficult to work out the source of all the hype. It’s what the artist Mae Rockland Tupa calls “the pernicious effects of Christmas celebration on the … Jewish mentality … mak[ing Channukah into] a Jewish Christmas”³ –except I’m going to dispute her use of the word “pernicious”. Frankly, the statistics speak for themselves. If Christmas is the thing that inspires 89% of British Jews to celebrate Channukah, I’m very much in favour of Christmas. Maybe Christianity popularised the idea of family gatherings in these dark days of winter. Maybe Christianity popularised the idea of twinkly lights when the evenings come in so early. Maybe Christianity makes children excited to get presents. But the 89% of our community who marked Channukah 2024, marked it Jewishly.
3. There’s a beautiful irony in the juxtaposition of the original story of Antiochus IV, and the role of Christmas in promoting Channukah. Crucially, he was trying to wipe out Judaism, not Jews. Purim was about a plot to annihilate our people. Channukah was an attempt to annihilate our distinctiveness.⁴ So, says the 20th-century Rav Yitzchak Hutner, Antiochus deployed three strategies to merge Jews back into the mainstream population.⁵ Firstly, they forcibly translated the Torah into Greek so that its nuances, uniquely accessible to Hebrew-speakers, were lost. Secondly, they “poured [their] power into the stream of Israel’s eternity” through forced intermarriage.⁶ And thirdly, they pushed non-Jewish innovations and institutions to promote assimilation.
4. That tripartite strategy was doomed to fail. In fact, all three of its components strengthened Judaism, and continue to strengthen us, here at BHPS, today. Translating Jewish texts into the languages that people actually speak only helps more and more people access our teachings. Intermarriage, often called ‘marrying out’, is for us called ‘marrying in’. By welcoming mixed and blended families we swell our numbers. And secular institutions, from universities to trade unions, have all nurtured strong Jewish identities over the course of their history.
5. The fact is, cruelty aside, Antiochus⁷ was very, very stupid. He thought that exposure to his culture would simply end Judaism because our ancestors would take one look at what his world had to offer and immediately jump ship.
6. But of course that isn’t what we did! Granted, we’re happy to adopt some of the best bits of Greek culture – tzatziki and democracy, in that order – but we were smart enough to realise that we didn’t have to make a binary choice. It isn’t an all-or-nothing decision about whether to follow Matisyahu the High Priest or Antiochus the Emperor. We can mix and match. We can study Plato and Rambam. We can practise democracy in our synagogues. We can put tzatziki on challah. It’s all about nuance.
7. Of course, the Maccabees completely routed the armies of Antiochus. There was no nuance there. Modern Israeli scholars in fact describe Judah Maccabee’s campaign as “one of the first manifestations of terrorism”.⁸ And that’s precisely why they’re largely left out of the rabbinic narrative of Channukah.⁹ The vital message is not that we should celebrate Jewish might or Jewish power. Rabbi Shlomo Goren, the first chief rabbi of the IDF, wrote that the glorification of military might is “the greatest danger to the principles of our faith”. Instead, he said, “the essence of the festival is not the battlefield victory but the spiritual victory”.¹⁰
8. That spiritual victory continues, without bloodshed, rancour or even ill-will, when it comes to the December dilemma of our multicultural society. The proof of the pudding is in the Christmas pudding.¹¹ The more that British Jews have been exposed to Christmas, the more we’ve done Channukah! 89%! And, on a more sober note, I suspect the statistic for Channukah 2025 will be even higher than the 89% from 2024, because the disgusting terrorist attack on Bondi Beach last week¹² will not only have failed to deter our people from gathering to celebrate, it will push and inspire us to do so even more.
9. Albie, you’re also part of the proof of the pudding. You grew up in this city, this city where you had both Jewish and secular influences on your life. Noöne forced you to come to cheder. You weren’t dragged here every Saturday morning since the age of 7. You took your own decision, just over a year ago, that you wanted to cement your Jewish identity and become bar mitzvah. Since then, you’ve worked extraordinarily hard on your Hebrew as well as on your general Jewish knowledge. You’ve dragged your mum here every Saturday morning, and it’s been lovely to welcome the two of you, along, often, with your grandparents from up the road, into our congregation.
10. Importantly, just like Joseph in the Torah portion you read so fantastically for us this morning, you followed a dream. You set your sights on a goal and you followed through. I know that this is a particularly special Channukah for you, because it’s the Channukah when you confirmed and affirmed your decision to become a Jewish adult. And what a perfect time of year at which to do so. We wish you מזל טוב!

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Remember that all of my sermons, handouts and so on can be found here.

Shavua tov!

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Notes

1. Genesis 41:1-8 ↩︎
2. Dr David Graham, “Celebrating the festival of lights: the popularity of Chanukah among Jews in the UK“, Institute for Jewish Policy Research (December 2025). ↩︎
3. Mae Shafter Rockland, The Hanukkah Book (New York: Schocken Books, 1975): x. ↩︎
4. Rabbi Andrea Zanardo, “About Chanukah“, Sermons and musings (6 December 2025). ↩︎
5. Pachad Yitzchak, Channukah 6:8 ↩︎
6. There are children present so I won’t go into the details of droit du seigneur here. ↩︎
7. At least according to this, relatively traditional, narrative of the Channukah story… ↩︎
8. Ami Pedahzur and Arie Perliger, Jewish Terrorism in Israel (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009): 1. ↩︎
9. Torat ha-Shabbat v’ha-Mo’ed p 322 ↩︎
10. Ibid. ↩︎
11. Or something. ↩︎
12. See eg Iddo Gefen, “Ahmed al Ahmed’s bravery at Bondi Beach reminds us of our own humanity in a world that seeks to erode it“, Jewish Telegraphic Agency (16 December 2025). ↩︎

David and Lily sat one night.
The sky was clear, the time felt right:
Three stars were out, the moon was up,
David drained his kiddush cup.
His mind was clear, his thoughts composed,
This was the moment to propose.
Lily cringed in fear and dread
As David grabbed her hands and said:

Let’s do it, let’s do it, now’s the time to become one:
Don’t renounce it, let’s announce it, we’ll shock and startle everyone!
Tell our members, by December, Liberal and Reform are names they won’t remember!
Let’s do it, let’s do it tonight!

But she said:

I can’t do it, I can’t do it, the whole thing is undemocratic.
Our story’s Montefiore – him and of course Israel Mattuck!
We’re campaigners, profaners, our values are derived from sermons of John Rayner’s!
I can’t do it, I can’t do it tonight!

So he said:

Let’s do it, let’s do it, we’re two sides of a single coin.
End status quo, our numbers grow, throw away your doubts and join!
Go straight in, no waitin’, for PR purposes let’s call it co-creatin’!
Let’s do it, let’s do it tonight!

But she said:

I can’t do it, I can’t do it, we did gay marriage before you.
Kadimah, women on the bimah, having patrilineal Jews!
We won’t fit in, your beit din hasn’t even managed to abolish gittin!
I can’t do it, I can’t do it tonight!

So he said:

Let’s do it, let’s do it, we can have a public voice:
Wear our tallis at the Palace, surely it’s an easy choice?
Don’t be nervous – every service, from now on we’ll be there alongside Ephraim Mirvis!
Let’s do it, let’s do it tonight.

Then she said:

I can’t do it, I can’t do it, what about the role of youth?
LJY, RSY, they deserve a voice in truth!
I can’t help noting, you’re promoting a new constitution that stops rabbis voting.
I can’t do it, I can’t do it tonight.

But he said:

Let’s do it, let’s do it, without you this cannot succeed.
Set a quorum for the Forum – be a powerful Co-Lead!
End the shunnin’, get more fundin’, maybe we can even try to get back West London!
Let’s do it, let’s do it tonight.

Now I say:

They did it, they did it, they merged us into MPJ.
Is this new movement an improvement? For now we can just hope and pray.
Call me silly, but I really value the inheritance of dear Miss Lily.
Oh well – they did it tonight.