Currently Browsing: Religion 45 articles
Covid Confessional: Not going back to Shul
I am in my back garden somehow socially distancing with friends as we play chicken with English Summertime cloud-filled skies. Between the muddled talk of the boss’s children discussing poos loudly during intense Zoom meetings, how fat everyone is now, and people not wearing masks in Waitrose properly, I make a hushed confession: I am […]
Scottish Identity and the G-d of Israel: an orthographic error that speaks louder than words
What does the Scottish Referendum on Independence have to do with Jews and their G-d? Is it about Politics? Or Theology? Or Political Theology? Or Theological Politics? I bet you will never guess. It is about . . . orthography. Yes, you read it correctly! It is about uppercase and lowercase letters that speak louder […]
Jews and Cheese: An Ambivalent Relationship
As we celebrate Shavuot, Nathan Abrams explores the curious relationship between Jews and cheese. The issue of Stilton cheese, which held up any potential UK trade deal with Japan, got me thinking about the relationship between Jews and cheese. But as it’s Shavuot, it’s a good time to be thinking about it again. Despite the modern Israeli’s love of all things to […]
Remembering Rabbi Hugo Gryn
On the twenty-fourth anniversary of his death, I thought I would mark the occasion to remember my friend, Rabbi Hugo Gryn. It was in the mid-1970s, in Jerusalem, when a longtime friend, Rabbi Levi Weiman-Kelman, introduced me to a visiting London rabbi and his family. I had been spending my junior year of college at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1970-1971 and decided to stay on afterwards. Rabbi Levi and I had met when we worked together at […]
A Pickler on the Roof
Jarrod Tanny discusses An American Pickle. *Contains some spoilers* At the risk of deploying an overused pun, we need to begin by alluding to the now well-known pickle Seth Rogen got himself into in July. While discussing his new film, An American Pickle, on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, where he spent an hour schmoozing with the host about all things ‘Jewy’ and their shared inability to escape their yichus. Rogen was […]
Spiritual Triage: Jewish Chaplaincy in the 21st Century
Reading the Jewish press, you cannot fail to notice the exceptionally busy role of University Chaplains. Undeniably, they do a good job in reaching out to, and sometimes bringing into the fold, Jewish students as they venture into their new lives, away from home. But somehow it is likely that the students who do become […]
Stop Bullying Seth Rogen
I hesitate to wade into this debate. It feels like it’s been done to death already (gesticulates). But there is something no one has said about the Maron/Rogen interview. Seth Rogen is being bullied. Some sections of the Jewish community are bullying him. Not because of his talent or some might say his lack of, […]
Kinder Korner: Singers Hill Synagogue in Birmingham, UK–the Minecraft edition!
Momo Skinazi, 10 years old, recreates the beautiful cathedral synagogue of Birmingham Hebrew Congregation…in Minecraft. Take a tour here!
Shtiebls Sans Frontieres
Sometime ago, before the ‘lockdown’, I was talking to a United Synagogue Rabbi who was bemoaning the lack of younger people in Shul on a Friday night; I guessed by “younger” he meant under 60, but he was thinking about those in their 20s. So, I told him they were all in their shuls. SHULS!? he spluttered with incredulity. Yes, shuls: […]
Cremation: So What If It’s Heresy?
In the months before lockdown I was training with a group of volunteers to start a project in the borough for the national Dying Matters organisation. As it happens, we were all ‘old’ and Jewish with a wealth of experience in many different professional fields – not just in the voluntary sector. The aim was […]