WRITINGS

A few days ago Shelly travelled by herself to Jerusalem. A silver lining from our year in hospital is that we have a half-full box of...

This week saw the latest round of elections is Israel, as citizens here voted for who should be elected to the 23rd Knesset, as members...

Not too long ago, I visited my birthplace of Coventry, for the first time in twenty five years. For those of you who don’t know, Coventry...

Mi She Nichnas Adar - Marbin Basimcha Whenever Adar arrives, the fun begins It feels a little odd advocating fun and games when I am not...

It was a conversation with Raul Gottlieb, President of the Union of Reform Judaism in Latin America, that helped me understand that there...

I was struck by lightning this week. There was a flash and a loud bang, and the plane I was on lurched to one side. I briefly wondered...

“My homeland, a poor and fair land The Queen has no home, the King has no crown And there are seven days of spring-time a year All the...

I recently shipped my things from Singapore to Israel. From Haifa Port the Customs officer called Shelly, my wife, in order to understand...

Anti-Semitism is hardly my favourite topic but unfortunately it has been much discussed this past year, more than at any time I can...

Joseph is a heroic figure sans pareil throughout the Hebrew Bible. Ex humili potens, as a patriarch he combines both the statesmanship of...

Deal or no deal? No, not another Brexit dvar torah (but fear not, I’m planning to comment on the British elections next week) but rather...

This week is a week full of Jewish celebration. I don’t mean Thanksgiving – although we could explore its Jewishness for the Americans...

Carmine – this morning you have stepped forward and led us in prayer and read from the Torah. It is your coming of age – the moment that...

In his 1972 book, la violence et le sacre (Violence and the Sacred) the French anthropologist Rene Girard explores violence and how it is...

This morning’s Torah portion is taken from parshat Nitzavim, a famous passage from almost the very end of the Book of Deuteronomy,...

“There must be in everyone’s life, an instance of misunderstanding that cannot be put right without inflicting a greater hurt – perhaps a...

Many synagogues have a high percentage of members who are High Holydays Jews, or as they are otherwise known, twice a year Jews. We have...

There’s an old story from a Rosh Hashanah in a synagogue of yesteryear. The shul had ushers, one of whom greeted an older, elderly, woman...

On this day thirteen years ago – September 14th 2006 – which must roughly be around the time that Sara, our bat mitzvah today was born –...

Great to be back! Great to be back at the American Club after a gap of several years Great to be back as a UHC community after the long...