15 May 2018

Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue will be hosting an all-night cheesecake and study marathon on Shavuot, on the theme of refugees.

The event will begin on Saturday 19 May at 6pm with the Rainbow Pilgrims pop-up exhibition – Liberal Judaism’s groundbreaking heritage and diversity project that discovers the ‘hidden history’ of LGBTQI+ migrants in the UK past and present.

The study marathon then starts at 9pm, with the event finishing at 5am the next morning with a service on the beach. Participants can leave at any time during the night.

The marathon will raise money for Thousand 4 1000, a community response that is dedicated to supporting people from refugee and migrant backgrounds to rebuild their lives in Brighton & Hove.

For more information and a study marathon sponsorship form, please contact info@bhps-online.org.

Tickets for the Rainbow Pilgrims pop-up are free, but must be reserved separately by clicking here.

The full programme for the event is:

6pm: Rainbow Pilgrims pop-up exhibition

8pm: Erev Shavuot service

9pm: Start of the all-night study marathon on refugees in aid of Thousand 4 1000, including the follow sessions…

9-9:15pm: Personal Engagement, A Creative Approach – Claire Bessel (personal engagement will be a continuing thread throughout the night)

9:15-10:15pm: The Rainbow Pilgrims Project – Liberal Judaism’s LGBTQI+ project manager Shaan Knan

10:15-11:15pm: The Turkish-Muslim ‘Dialogue Society’ – Mahmut Gunaydin

11:15pm-12:15am: Supporting Migrants and Refugees, the work and the challenges – Panel of speakers from local refugee charities including Thousand 4 1000, Sanctuary on Sea, Brighton Migrant Solidarity, Migrant English Project and LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants)

12:15-1:15am: Fleeing Nazi Germany – Mac Goldsmith, a German-Jewish refugee in Britain, and Dr Gerhard Wolf, senior lecturer in History at Sussex University

1:15-2:15am: Meditation, creative activity and reflection – Andy Cable

2:15-3:15am: Jewish experiences of migration and flight and Torah teachings on the sojourner. Torah study with the aid of maps – Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah

3:15-4:45am: Two films – Nina’s Children by Nina Grunfeld about what happened to a group of Viennese Jewish children who went to a Summer Camp in Oslo in 1938 (65 mins) and We Ask Not What Thou Art by Kevin Reynolds about the Brighton-based Space For All Estate Agency Art Project (17 mins)

5am: Shavuot Shacharit service on the beach with the reading of the Ten Commandments