23rd October 2015 Progressive students will be fully equipped for Shabbat on campus thanks to new kits provided by Liberal Judaism. The kits contain a special Kabbalat Shabbat siddur, a £50 food voucher, Kiddush wine, candles, yeast and a challah recipe, and a havdalah set. Liberal chaplain Rabbi Leah Jordan … Read More
Twilight People on the radio
October 19 2015 Liberal Judaism’s pioneering project Twilight People: Stories of Faith and Gender Beyond the Binary is set to be featured on the radio. Twilight People founder Surat-Shaan Knan will appear on the Under the Rainbow show on Pure 107.8fm. Under the Rainbow is the weekly radio programme for … Read More
Barnet Council to resettle 50 refugees after FPS action
7th October 2015 Finchley Progressive Synagogue and Rabbi Rebecca Qassim Birk hosted a successful Barnet Citizens action over Sukkot, which saw Barnet Council agree to resettle 50 Syrian refugees. As part of Liberal Judaism and Citizens UK’s Sanctuary campaign – which began last Sukkot – the event was hosted in … Read More
We will rise to help refugees
Jewish News 21st September 2015 Rabbi Danny Rich On Yom Kippur afternoon, the Torah reading in all Liberal synagogues is the Holiness Code (Leviticus 19) in which congregants will hear: Lo ta-amod al dam ray’echa (verse 16). Like all Biblical verses, it is likely that its original meaning is lost … Read More
Liberal rabbis give Yom Kippur advice
20th September 2015 Working with The Jewish Telegraph, we asked four Liberal rabbis for their tips on ‘how to survive Yom Kippur’. Below, they give their advice from both a spiritual and fasting point of view. Rabbi Rebecca Qassim Birk (Finchley Progressive Synagogue): Despite what you may imagine, Yom Kippur … Read More
Campaigns to help refugees growing
The JC 17th September 2015 The Jewish community’s response to the refugee crisis expanded this week, with the announcement of plans for a public meeting to canvas opinion on the most productive ways to help. More than £180,000 has been raised in the past week by World Jewish Relief’s appeal … Read More
LJ’s senior rabbi tells BBC Radio why Britain must accept more refugees
7th September 2015 Liberal Judaism’s senior rabbi, Rabbi Danny Rich, has been on BBC Radio over the last few days urging the British Government to accept 20,000 refugees. Speaking on the BBC World Service this morning, Danny said: “If you’re facing an emergency, then I believe the goodwill, skills and … Read More
St John’s Wood community offers lifeline to asylum seekers
The JC 27 August 2015 Member of a Liberal Jewish community have spent the past year offering legal, financial and practical help to hundreds of asylum seekers. Here they explain why. It was a Sunday and inside the usually quiet St John’s Wood Liberal Jewish Synagogue members were franticly organising … Read More
Don’t react to attacks on freedom by restricting it
Lucian J Hudson 25 January 2015 The Jewish News Reflecting on events in France 200-plus years ago, philosopher and politician Edmund Burke was quoted saying: “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Recent events, again in France, bring Burke to mind. Violence … Read More
Bienvenue à Finchley!
11 December 2014 The Jewish Chronicle Finchley Progressive Synagogue has appointed its first assistant rabbi. Rene Pfertzel joins Rabbi Rebecca Birk in a job share at the growing shul which now counts 330 households as members. “It’s quite a big step for the shul, and reflects the view that our … Read More