From darkness to light with a day of Jewish learning

On Sunday 19 March more than 30 people of all ages came to the Sternberg Centre for a day of progressive Torah, called From Darkness to Light, a pre-Pesach Torah Binge!

The very full day included teaching from Rabbis Laura Janner-Klausner, Josh Levy, Benji Stanley, and from the community organiser for the Jewish community, Charlotte Fischer, exploring issues such as how do Reform Jews make decisions, and lessons for leadership from the wilderness.

The day celebrated the great enthusiasm for Torah in Reform Judaism. At the heart of the event were a number of young adults who have been developing leadership and Jewish skills throughout the year, through a retreat, subsidised opportunities and community organising training, as part of our new young adult leadership process, Ya’ad, meaning destination or goal.

We are developing the next cadre of leaders for progressive Judaism, and over the course of the day, these leaders shared reflections on how they’ve developed over the year, and two of the young adults, Em Hilton and Daniel Mackintosh also pushed themselves to teach excellent sessions too.

One of our young adult leaders said: “ This was an excellent day. I have really grown through this process – leyning, teaching, learning and developing new relationships”. Another commented: “the learning was top quality and varied with a lovely group of people. The best part for me: being reminded of how many people are hungry for Torah. Wonderful”.

Rabbi Benji Stanley, Reform Judaism’s Rabbi for Young Adults said: “We are beginning to evaluate the pilot of our Young Adult Leadership process to build on this year’s success and we look forward to creating together with our communities more great days of learning and leaders”.