Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh
5 July 2016

LJ Communities
Rabbi Dr Deborah Kahn-Harris visited the LJS to lead a Nosh ‘n Drosh and, together with Dr Keith Kahn-Harris, spent a working weekend with the Shir HaTzaphon congregation in Copenhagen.
Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh visited Dublin for Pesach and for the congregation’s 70th anniversary celebrations during which he was affirmed as Rabbi Emeritus.
Anna Posner has continued to lead regular services in Eastbourne, taken a service in Stevenage and teaches at NPLS cheder. She will be attending the last part of the WUPJ fellowship in the summer.
Daniel Lichman continues his fourth year congregational placement in York and will be an educator on Kayitz this summer.
Robyn Ashworth-Steen continues her work in Kent Liberal Jewish Community and Wessex Liberal Jewish Community, and was with Wessex for their communal seder.
Nathan Godleman sang as cantor at a big bar mitzvah at Finchley Progressive, led a Shabbat service at Eastbourne Liberal, his third annual seder in Eastbourne, a Shabbat service back at Finchley Progressive, taught two adult classes, also at FPS and s§ang as cantor at Mosaic Liberal on erev Shabbat and for Yom HaShoah.
Elliott Karstadt has led services at Finchley and taught at NPLS.
Danny Newman continues his student placement at Elstree.

Kauffman Dinner
The annual dinner took place at the Montcalm Hotel on May 25th. 200 guests of the College enjoyed listening to the guest speaker, Professor Mona Siddiqui, in conversation with Professor Melissa Raphael. It was a most convivial evening in an excellent atmosphere and Marc Green, LBC’s Head of Fundraising, was congratulated for all his work in making the evening a success.

Education Degrees Recruitment
We are now recruiting for students for the MA in Jewish Educational Leadership and the Certificate in Jewish Education. We have four students applying for the MA, one coming from LJS. Our efforts are now focused on recruiting for the Certificate, but we would always welcome more students for the MA.
 
We would appreciate the communities’ support in helping to identify potential students for either of these courses. Please contact Jo-Ann Myers: jo-ann.myers@lbc.ac.uk/020 8349 5626.

Lehrhaus
We are beginning to prepare for the 2016/17 programme. In addition to courses in Bible, Talmud, Biblical Hebrew, Jewish philosophy and Jewish music we will be offering some on-line courses to enable more people to study with us. Details will be publicised shortly.

Hebrew
Jo-Ann will be offering an interactive workshop on the College’s Hebrew programme, Eizeh Kef, at the LJ Biennial. As was reported for the April Council meeting, we currently have 12 communities and 5 Jewish primary schools in the UK using the programme, 4 communities in Belarus and 1 in the Ukraine, plus one community in South Africa. The programme is also used in different private capacities in other countries, including Spain, Ireland and the US. The fifth unit (of a total of 7) is due to be published in the new academic year. Plans to make Eizeh Kef interactive are underway with a view to facilitate learning on Interactive White Boards and tablets.

Jo-Ann will be representing the College and lecturing at a Cambridge conference this month on the future of Hebrew learning in the UK, where she will be presenting her doctoral research. The conference has been organised by the University of Cambridge and the World Zionist Organisation.

In May Jo-Ann successfully defended her doctoral dissertation in Hebrew Pedagogy, for which she has worked over several years. We congratulate her on this splendid achievement.

60th Anniversary Service
The Service of Celebration to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of Leo Baeck College will take place at the LJS on Sunday November 6th. Further details in due course.