Liberal Judaism’s series of Open House Shabbats continues this Saturday (19 November) at 11am with a joint online celebration hosted by Sukkat Shalom: Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community and Neve Shalom: Leicester Progressive Jewish Congregation.

The two communities have shared Rabbi Mark Solomon as their rabbi for a number of years, but became much closer during lockdown when they joined for online services.

Taking place on Zoom from 11am, this Open House Shabbat will celebrate both their relationship and 120 years of Liberal Judaism – with members and friends of Liberal Judaism from all over invited to attend. For the Zoom link and service details, please email contact@eljc.org.

During the service, there will also be an admission ceremony for one of the members of the Edinburgh community – who lives in Orkney.

The Open House Shabbat initiative will see each Liberal Judaism congregation hold at least one Shabbat during the year, for which they will open their doors – whether in-person, online or both – to the rest of the Liberal Jewish world and beyond.

More about the communities:

Leicester Progressive Jewish Community was founded in the 1950s by a mixture of Leicester residents and new arrivals from Europe. For many years we met in members’ homes or at the Quaker Friends Meeting House. But in 1995 we acquired our own warm and welcoming synagogue in Stoneygate. We have been very active in supporting local social action initiatives including providing a night shelter in our shul for homeless people as part of a multi-faith initiative, and teaching English to refugees and asylum seekers. Leicester was the city in England which remained in lock-down for the longest! We sustained ourselves through joint Zoom services with Edinburgh and remember a particularly merry virtual Purimspiel! But it has been a delight to be able to return to our synagogue – highlights being a joyous summer Barmitzvah and increasingly popular Shabbat evening vegan suppers.

Edinburgh Liberal Jewish Community was founded some 18 years ago and we are the only Liberal community in Scotland. Since then we have continued to grow as a community and we now have well over 100 adult members and a thriving cheder. (If you go onto the BBC iPlayer and look for the recent programme ‘Being Jewish in Scotland’, you will see we are one of the few, if not the only, Jewish community in Scotland that is growing!) In conjunction with Leicester, we have an active conversion group and hold various adult education activities run by our part-time Rabbi, Mark Solomon. Our services are a mixture of in-person, hybrid and Zoom only, and a number of lay readers, as well as Rabbi Mark, lead them. We don’t yet have our own synagogue building, but meet in one of two church buildings – that is, when we’re not holding services on Zoom!