The Movement for Reform Judaism

The Hebrew word Yovel, from which the English word Jubilee comes, actually means ram or ram’s horn and it lends its name to the fiftieth year because of the sounding of the ram’s horn as a means of proclaiming it. So we too included in our celebration of this Yovel, the sounding of the shofar, as an expression of our joy and thanksgiving for having attained this milestone. In Biblical times the Yovel year was defined as sacred: the land was to be left fallow, it was to be returned to its former owners and Jewish slaves were to be freed. In other words, things were to be restored to their previous state. Now that, of course, is not how we enter our Jubilee year. Those who established this community were desirous of creating change from what had been their previous religious homes and environments. Those in the years since, rabbinic and lay leaders alike, have striven to build on the foundations laid, to develop a Judaism for our time, meeting the needs of our members in a variety of educational, pastoral, cultural, social and religious ways. They have assumed a realistic approach to life in the second half of the last century and the opening years of this, while retaining an allegiance to the traditions of those who came before, to the heritage they carried with them from the staedles in Eastern Europe to the hovels of the East End of London to the leafy suburbs of Redbridge.

And because it is not our intention to go back, I want to use this occasion to look forward, if not the next fifty years, certainly for the remainder of my time with the congregation. In the area of children’s education, we are now in the fortunate position of being able to extend a Jewish day school education to all of our members at primary level as a result of the establishment of Clore Tikva School, largely due to the efforts of members of this Synagogue. And with the help of Government policy and a proliferation of secondary schools in other parts of London, we can almost guarantee the same for secondary education. This inevitably has had an effect on our Religion School, but we are working at how to most effectively and creatively benefit from this new situation and overall the impact should be remarkably positive. This burgeoning of children’s Jewish education should put pressure on parents to want to be able to keep up with their children and we are putting in place courses and programmes to take advantage of that – hopefully for grandparents too.

In fact, we have a very full social and cultural programme for grandparents and this will be enhanced, as will our pastoral provision, as we recognise the demographic reality of an aging Jewish population. Nevertheless, we also cater for the very young with a newly established thriving toddlers group and well-attended Shabbat Services for young children and their parents. We are less successful at the moment with Services for older children and our provision for them will become more varied and entertaining with the availability of our newly refurbished Community and Youth Centre. Similarly, a major focus for us is the 18-35 age group, whose Jewish life is not adequately catered for by the Synagogue.

We are also looking at how well our Shabbat and Festival Services respond to the religious needs of the majority of our members – those who don’t often grace us by their presence. With this in mind and the flexibility of our new Siddur, due within the next two years, we have put together a number of radical alternative minyanim, to be offered to the different tastes and temperaments within our membership. Some of these ideas, inevitably will disappear without trace, but if the net effect is to bring into the active community a few extra people then the time and effort will prove to be worthwhile.

Of course, these aren’t fundamental departures from the normal activities of a Synagogue, rather a realigning to take account of, and to pick up on the opportunities arising from, changing circumstances. Perhaps more innovative is the work we will be doing in the area of intra- and inter- faith work. As now the largest Synagogue in the region, it becomes even more our task to lead when it comes to finding appropriate ways to ensure co-operation and collaboration between the congregations in the Redbridge Jewish community. Apart from significantly expanding the joint activities of ECAPS, the Eastern Counties Association of Progressive Synagogues, we must positively seek aspects of life within the Jewish community as a whole, where we can work with Orthodox and Masorti partners for the wellbeing of Redbridge Jewry.

And in the wider community, there is an even greater need for closer working with people across the faith groups. One of the down-sides of Faith Schools is the relative isolation of the children, their lack of personal contact with other religions and cultures. In an increasingly divided society, it is imperative that we do all we can to improve relationships between people of different faiths, especially children and we will be looking at how we can use the already good contacts we have with faith leaders to put in place a series of programmes that addresses this.

Obviously, I’ll have a lot more to say about these things in the future, but for this afternoon my message is that a Yovel, a Jubilee, is not the time to sit back feeling complacent – although some recognition of what has been achieved is allowed – but a time for looking forward and realising how much more there is still to be done. May God continue to be with us. As the psalmist said:

“May the favour of the Lord our God be upon us, let the work of our hands prosper, O prosper the work of our hands.”"

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