31 October 2018

South London Liberal Synagogue will be the next to host Leo Baeck College’s Lehrhaus on the Road series – as Europe’s preeminent institution of Progressive Jewish learning brings its acclaimed adult education programme into synagogues.

Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet will be running a four week course entitled Some Foolish Men and a Feisty Woman in the Biblical ‘Early Prophets’. It will run on the four Sundays in February 2019 (3, 10, 17 and 24 February) from 11am until 12.30pm. The special sponsored price is just £35.

To book your place, please click here.

Rabbi Professor Jonathan Magonet is a British Jewish theologian and biblical scholar. He was the principal of Leo Baeck College for 20 years and, now retired, he still lectures on regularly at the College and all over the world.

The description of his course reads: “The compilers of the Hebrew Bible made the unusual decision to classify the Books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings under the category of ‘prophecy’ and not the more obvious label ‘history’, as they are organised in Christian Bibles.

“This means that we are forced to read them not simply as recording past events of mere antiquarian interest, but as offering reflections on contemporary life; not in terms of future events foretold, but as recurring patterns of human experience and behaviour from which to learn.

“So, we will study the rise of a despot (Abimelech), an over-pious and over-zealous soldier (Jephthah), a shrewd but unnamed woman (the mother of Samson) and a prophet who gets it wrong (Samuel).”