Reform Judaism mourns Rabbi Charles Wallach z"l who died on 23 August. He was 69. Rabbi Charles Wallach was born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Graduating with the class of 1975 at Leo Baeck College he served communities around the world…
This year's World Transplant Games took place in Gateshead and Newcastle. Newcastle Reform Synagogue (NRS) were delighted that Nadia Stock, who received a bone marrow transplant 16 years ago, is one of the competitors. Nadia’s parents, Lisa and Paul, suggested…
Exceptional opportunity to be Rabbi with the team serving the largest Reform Community in Europe. Edgware & Hendon Reform Synagogue is an inclusive, progressive, vibrant and welcoming community, which strongly values tradition, whilst responding to the challenges of modern day…
The first of Elul is the Jewish new year for animals, according to Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 1:1. In Temple times it was the time that tithes should be calculated on flocks and herds. Just as Tu B’Shevat, the time for…
On Sunday 18 August, 26 babies and toddlers from 15 families came to Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue for our first “Tea and Tots” event. This event is part of the synagogue’s commitment to young families, for the past two…
Today’s reflection tells us that individual righteousness cannot exist without awareness and care for one’s generation. Care of trees was interpreted as meriting divine protection. [One] essential attribute of a righteous person’s proper attitude (intention/kavanah) in their actions is care…
As we come closer to the High Holy Days, the question of repentance and change draws nearer. Lucy Benjamin’s PhD thesis dissertation is on Hannah Arendt and climate change. Reflecting on the High Holy Days and teshuvah she writes: "As…
Reading this next passage might suggest that the rabbis were not especially interested in nature and what we now call the environment (as if we, too, were somehow not part of it.) Interpretations, however, insist that whatever we do should…
Martin Buber’s teachings on I-Thou emphasise how different it is to enter into a full encounter with another person rather than our more habitual mode, which he describes as I-He or I-She: here the other person is taken for granted…
We introduce this poem of Dannie Abse (1923-2004), suggested by Rabbi Howard Cooper, to reinforce yesterday’s emphasis upon consciousness, paying attention and listening. It repays repeated readings, noting the punctuation. Mysteries At night, I do not know who I…