Submitted by Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah As a child, I used to love visiting the almost deserted City of London on a Sunday morning with my family. I recall looking up at the statue of Justice that adorns the dome of the Old Bailey, and marvelling at the image of a powerful-looking woman, her arms…

Submitted by Rabbi Alexandra Wright Is peace between Israel and her Palestinian neighbours now a pipedream, a hallucinatory, vain hope with no possibility of its own Dayton Peace Accords, Good Friday Agreement or Truth and Reconciliation Commission? How do wars end? How does conflict between nations find its resolution? Perhaps, as the Psalmist says, we…

Submitted by Rabbi Nathan Godleman It is hard to know what to say when people are desperate for food; when one’s mind is crowded with images of outstretched hands and empty containers; the gaunt faces of adults and skeletal bodies of infants. It is hard to know what to say when the number of hostages…

Submitted by Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel In order to understand what the main content of the Sinai revelation was, that is the Ten Commandments, I will set out on a round-about journey, the journey of an English pilgrim of the 17th century, as described by John Bunyan in his book “The Pilgrim’s Progress”.  Our hero’s name…

Submitted by Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel Exodus tells the story of replacing the violence of slavery with the violence of the liberation process. This can be read in several ways. One convincing reading is to justify the blows hitting the Egyptians as punishment for their criminal subjugation of the Children of Israel. Another reading can be…

Submitted by Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel On Shabbat Hanukkah, we read from the Prophets the chapter that inspired Israel’s national emblem, the Menorah with two olive tree branches, including the verse that was suggested at a certain point to be included at the bottom of that emblem: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My…

Submitted by Rabbanit Leah Shakdiel On May 14, 1948, when the British mandate over Palestine was about to expire at midnight, the leaders of the Yishuv, the Zionist Settlement in Palestine, got together in Tel Aviv (Jerusalem was under siege and inaccessible, and was not included in the UN plan for a Jewish state), and declared…

Submitted by Dr Tony Klug If “Justice, justice, shalt thou pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:20) – the repetition signifying that justice must be pursued with justice — had been the sole Jewish contribution to human civilization, it would have been enough.    “Dayenu ….” If “Let my people go” (Exodus 9:1) – inspiring generations of oppressed peoples struggling…

Submitted by Dr Tony Klug I’m not sure I’m the best person to be making this presentation, as I’m still deeply in denial about recent developments in both your country, the US, and mine, the UK. One can only hope that our anticipations for 2017 turn out to be as faulty as our anticipations were…

Submitted by Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah PRAYER FOR REFUGEES Eternal God, our Creator and Liberator, as we celebrate Shabbat together and rejoice in our many blessings, we pause to remember Your children across the world whose lives are blighted by the curses of poverty and persecution. We think of the many millions across the globe,…