Liberal Judaism’s Education Hub series, commemorating our movement’s 120th anniversary, will tonight look at a famous poet who was among the founding generation of our movement… Amy K Blank.

It will be led by Liberal Judaism President Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein, who has been researching Amy K Blank ever since coming across one of her poems and finding out she was a Liberal Jew.

Writing in the latest LJ Today, Andrew said: “Born in London in 1898, Amy’s father Karl Kirchberger was a wealthy import-export businessman and early member of The Liberal Jewish Synagogue (LJS).

“The Kirschbergers became close friends of Liberal Judaism’s founding rabbi, Rabbi Israel Mattuck. Amy was the first secretary of the Alumni Society for young people at the LJS and studied with Mattuck. She became his helper and got deeply involved in the development of Liberal Judaism.

“She wrote and searched out poetry that Mattuck used in his prayer books. He included one of her poems in Volume I, which she read at his funeral.

“In 1925 there was a visiting rabbi at the LJS from Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati – Rabbi Sheldon Blank, who was to become a leader of Reform Judaism in America. He and Amy fell in love and were married in 1926. She moved to Cincinnati where she became a much-loved and integral part of College life and American Reform Judaism.

“All along she wrote poetry and had six books published between 1919 and 1981. She also composed a children’s Haggadah.”

Liberal Judaism’s Education Hub is a cross-communal adult learning programme. This year it will be split into four parts looking at 120 year’s of Liberal Jewish practice, values and beliefs.

Each session will be held on a Wednesday at 7:30pm via Zoom. Those registered to participate will also receive access to recordings of the sessions. Click here to register.

All sessions are designed to stand alone, so you can attend as many (or as few) evenings as you’d like. The previous and upcoming sessions are:

Wednesday 12 January: Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh presented a loving retrospective on Rabbi John D Rayner. You can watch it here.
Wednesday 19 January: Rabbi Pete Tobias and many others shared special memories of Rosita Rosenberg. You can watch it here.
Wednesday 26 January: Rabbi Michael Shire on Rabbi Leo Baeck: A Liberal Jew Before His Time. You can watch it here.
Wednesday 2 February: Rabbi Jackie Tabick on Lily Montagu and her Club. You can watch it here.
Wednesday 9 February: Rabbi Dr Andrew Goldstein on Amy K Blank
Wednesday 16 Feb: Rabbi Aaron Goldstein in conversation with Ruth Shire