During March, Ruach students celebrated both Purim and Pesach (rather early), on each occasion with a whole morning of activities.
On 11th March, students were invited to come to Ruach in costume for our Purim celebrations.
Congratulations to the winners of the fancy dress parade: Alice and David.
As well as dressing up, we also baked tradi,onal homentaschen, and tried our hand at palmiers. These pastries, which look a lile like ears, are a delicious idea for Purim, apparently originating in France. At the end of the morning, we made Mishloach Manot (tradi,onal Purim gifts containing food, including homentaschen), which the students then gave to members of the Shabbat morning congregation, somewhat to their surprise! Many thanks to Barbara Ostermeyer, who made a batch of homentaschen to supplement our own baking endeavours.
Other activities during the morning were a lively Megillah reading, accompanied by lots of noise from our home-made graggers; an illustrated Megillah, which can be seen on the notice board in the Baron Harris Room; and a Purim Photo Booth (see pictures).
On 25th March, we celebrated the Ruach Pesach Seder. This was a “bring a friend event.” We were able to include our visitors in the reading of the Haggadah, as well as in a number of other activities, including baking our own Matzah, and the now tradi,onal hard-boiled egg championship.
April is a quiet month for Ruach, as it includes the Pesach break. However, we are already making plans for May, when LJY Netzer will be joining us in Oakwood Park, for a joint celebration of Yom Ha-atsma’ut and Lag Ba’omer. Also in May, we will be welcoming a new member of Ruach staff, George Panayiotou. George will be teaching the GCSE class when Gerry is away.
Thursday, 27 April 2017
Thursday, 20 April 2017
Supper Quiz - 25th February 2017
A big thank you to everybody who came along to support our Supper Quiz last month. It was very well attended and we were entertained by our Quizmaster whilst enjoying a fish and chip supper.
There was a great vibe around the hall throughout the evening and it appeared that the evening was enjoyed by all. I would also like to say a big thank you to those who helped out on the day.
We held a raffle during the evening and I am pleased to report that the net figure raised was just over £800, the proceeds of which will be utilised by SPS.
There was a great vibe around the hall throughout the evening and it appeared that the evening was enjoyed by all. I would also like to say a big thank you to those who helped out on the day.
We held a raffle during the evening and I am pleased to report that the net figure raised was just over £800, the proceeds of which will be utilised by SPS.
Thursday, 13 April 2017
Community Seder
You will shortly be getting your Pesach recipe books down from the shelf to start your Pesach baking. As usual I am asking if you could bake a few extra cakes and biscuits to enhance the Kiddushim after services. If you do not have time to bake we will happily accept bought cakes and biscuits (obviously Pesach ones).
All donations gratefully appreciated and accepted.
There are a few days left, up to 2nd April, to reserve your place at the Communal Seder. Application forms can be obtained from the office.
The Communal Seder is always greatly enjoyed by those who aend. As you can appreciate this is something that just doesn’t happen, it is an event that takes careful planning and organising. There are the dedicated few, not all of them aend, who help set up the Hall, organise the sea,ng and make sure there is enough matzah, wine, Seder plates, crockery and cutlery in place for the night.
Extra help is always required and appreciated. If you have an hour or two during the day when you can help please contact Barbara Martin, she will tell you how you can help and the time to arrive.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Barbara Martin
All donations gratefully appreciated and accepted.
There are a few days left, up to 2nd April, to reserve your place at the Communal Seder. Application forms can be obtained from the office.
The Communal Seder is always greatly enjoyed by those who aend. As you can appreciate this is something that just doesn’t happen, it is an event that takes careful planning and organising. There are the dedicated few, not all of them aend, who help set up the Hall, organise the sea,ng and make sure there is enough matzah, wine, Seder plates, crockery and cutlery in place for the night.
Extra help is always required and appreciated. If you have an hour or two during the day when you can help please contact Barbara Martin, she will tell you how you can help and the time to arrive.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Barbara Martin
Thursday, 6 April 2017
‘Silence’ - Itamar Yaoz-Kesset
The numbers on her arm began to crumble
Like a taoo on a sailor’s arm
She imposed silence upon herself for thirty-five years
Upon the line of numbers on her arm,
Which began with the letter A
She wanted to live the HERE and the NOW
She wanted to live the sea, the house, the children
And if she occasionally revealed herself
It was with an accidental life of the sleeve
And now, five abandoned digits remain in my mind
Refuse to return to silence
To the stillness of the Times Table.
This poem, titled ‘Silence’ and originally wrien in Hebrew, was composed by Itamar Yaoz-Kesset. Itamar was born in 1934 in Hungary as Péter Ervin Keszt to an assimilated Jewish family. His grandparents and parents believed that the answer to an,semi,sm is full integration into the Hungarian society.
This unfortunately did not spare the family from persecu,on and death when the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944. Aged 10, Itamar was sent to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Seeing so much death and destruction around him, he regards his survival of the camp as ‘Divine intervention.’
Itamar managed to rebuild his life in Israel where he later became an educator and a poet. He was very far from keeping silent about the Holocaust. His first-hand childhood experience of the horrors of the Holocaust features heavily in his poems and essays.
In his poem ‘Silence’, wrien 35 years a+er libera,on, Itamar describes the passing at the age of 40 of his cousin Elizabeth. She survived Auschwitz death camp as a young child together with her mother.
After liberation, Elizabeth lived her life, she got married, had children, and had a good job.
For 35 years Elizabeth never spoke about her experience of the Holocaust and the traumas of Auschwitz Death Camp. Her response was – silence.
HOW CAN LIFE GO ON?
The only way for Elizabeth’s life to go on, and the only way for her to live the HERE and NOW, was through silence. This silence did not necessarily come from an awareness or an informed decision.
This silence, experienced by so many Holocaust survivors, and survivors of other genocides, is like a spiritual disability. Breaking that silence takes the survivor from the HERE and NOW, back into the horrors of the THEN and THERE. Many would not be able to survive that experience – mentally and spiritually.
The only testimony to Elizabeth’s harrowing experience was the taoo on her arm, only to be revealed accidentally, at the life of a sleeve. She took her taoo, and her story, with her to the grave.
The Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel left the gates of Auschwitz at the age of 17. For a decade after the liberation, this prolific writer kept complete silence about his experiences. Life for young Wiesel had to go on. It took a great deal of persuasion and encouragement by the French journalist François Mauriac for Wiesel to start writing about his experiences. Wiesel broke his spell of silence, and he never stopped writing, and never stopped telling the world his experience of the holocaust.
Why do so many survivors of genocide choose to keep silent?
There are a few reasons for that.
Like Elizabeth they want for LIFE TO GO ON. They want to a live normal life, get married, establish a house, and go to work. For many this aempt would be futile, as the past comes back to torment them. It could be through:
• Dreams and nightmares;
• The habits they adopted during their trauma;
• Marks and scars on their bodies – and on their souls;
• TV images of other conflicts;
• Attempts at reconstructing history and Denial of their suffering
• Or news about the rise of ideologies and powers similar to those that led to their experiences.
They keep silent because they want to spare their families and dear ones from the trauma of their experiences. Yet, we know that there is no escape for the second and subsequent genera,on of survivors. It is some,mes even worse when survivors themselves are unable to talk about their experiences. The silence that comes to protect becomes the tormenting shadow for the next generations.
They keep silent because in many societies there is a lack of understanding of the survivor’s experience. They are asked questions such as:
· Why were you led like sheep to the slaughter?
· Why didn’t you fight?
· Why didn’t you hide?
· Why didn’t you escape?
Explaining and debating is just too difficult and traumatic, and silence is the easy way out.
Yet, it is this ‘comfortable’ silence that is often at the centre of the survivors’ inability to leave the past behind. Silence could o+en result in denial of justice to those who are wronged, and it can let their perpetrators get away with murder.
In his 1986 Nobel Prize speech, Elie Wiesel stated:
“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
As hard as it is at times, breaking the silence of survivors often helps bring about the process of justice, and the process of healing, for survivors and their family. Most importantly, it helps with the preven,on of future miscarriages of justice.
Itamar Yaoz-Kesset wrote about the silence of his cousin Elizabeth – a Holocaust survivor.
Yet he used his words to tell us the story of the tattoo on her arm.
And by doing so he managed to break her 35 years of silence, and the tormenting secrets she took with her to the grave.
Life must go on.
Yet, the story of victims and survivors has to have a voice.
Rabbi Yuval Keren
Like a taoo on a sailor’s arm
She imposed silence upon herself for thirty-five years
Upon the line of numbers on her arm,
Which began with the letter A
She wanted to live the HERE and the NOW
She wanted to live the sea, the house, the children
And if she occasionally revealed herself
It was with an accidental life of the sleeve
And now, five abandoned digits remain in my mind
Refuse to return to silence
To the stillness of the Times Table.
This poem, titled ‘Silence’ and originally wrien in Hebrew, was composed by Itamar Yaoz-Kesset. Itamar was born in 1934 in Hungary as Péter Ervin Keszt to an assimilated Jewish family. His grandparents and parents believed that the answer to an,semi,sm is full integration into the Hungarian society.
This unfortunately did not spare the family from persecu,on and death when the Nazis invaded Hungary in 1944. Aged 10, Itamar was sent to Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Seeing so much death and destruction around him, he regards his survival of the camp as ‘Divine intervention.’
Itamar managed to rebuild his life in Israel where he later became an educator and a poet. He was very far from keeping silent about the Holocaust. His first-hand childhood experience of the horrors of the Holocaust features heavily in his poems and essays.
In his poem ‘Silence’, wrien 35 years a+er libera,on, Itamar describes the passing at the age of 40 of his cousin Elizabeth. She survived Auschwitz death camp as a young child together with her mother.
After liberation, Elizabeth lived her life, she got married, had children, and had a good job.
For 35 years Elizabeth never spoke about her experience of the Holocaust and the traumas of Auschwitz Death Camp. Her response was – silence.
HOW CAN LIFE GO ON?
The only way for Elizabeth’s life to go on, and the only way for her to live the HERE and NOW, was through silence. This silence did not necessarily come from an awareness or an informed decision.
This silence, experienced by so many Holocaust survivors, and survivors of other genocides, is like a spiritual disability. Breaking that silence takes the survivor from the HERE and NOW, back into the horrors of the THEN and THERE. Many would not be able to survive that experience – mentally and spiritually.
The only testimony to Elizabeth’s harrowing experience was the taoo on her arm, only to be revealed accidentally, at the life of a sleeve. She took her taoo, and her story, with her to the grave.
The Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel left the gates of Auschwitz at the age of 17. For a decade after the liberation, this prolific writer kept complete silence about his experiences. Life for young Wiesel had to go on. It took a great deal of persuasion and encouragement by the French journalist François Mauriac for Wiesel to start writing about his experiences. Wiesel broke his spell of silence, and he never stopped writing, and never stopped telling the world his experience of the holocaust.
Why do so many survivors of genocide choose to keep silent?
There are a few reasons for that.
Like Elizabeth they want for LIFE TO GO ON. They want to a live normal life, get married, establish a house, and go to work. For many this aempt would be futile, as the past comes back to torment them. It could be through:
• Dreams and nightmares;
• The habits they adopted during their trauma;
• Marks and scars on their bodies – and on their souls;
• TV images of other conflicts;
• Attempts at reconstructing history and Denial of their suffering
• Or news about the rise of ideologies and powers similar to those that led to their experiences.
They keep silent because they want to spare their families and dear ones from the trauma of their experiences. Yet, we know that there is no escape for the second and subsequent genera,on of survivors. It is some,mes even worse when survivors themselves are unable to talk about their experiences. The silence that comes to protect becomes the tormenting shadow for the next generations.
They keep silent because in many societies there is a lack of understanding of the survivor’s experience. They are asked questions such as:
· Why were you led like sheep to the slaughter?
· Why didn’t you fight?
· Why didn’t you hide?
· Why didn’t you escape?
Explaining and debating is just too difficult and traumatic, and silence is the easy way out.
Yet, it is this ‘comfortable’ silence that is often at the centre of the survivors’ inability to leave the past behind. Silence could o+en result in denial of justice to those who are wronged, and it can let their perpetrators get away with murder.
In his 1986 Nobel Prize speech, Elie Wiesel stated:
“Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
As hard as it is at times, breaking the silence of survivors often helps bring about the process of justice, and the process of healing, for survivors and their family. Most importantly, it helps with the preven,on of future miscarriages of justice.
Itamar Yaoz-Kesset wrote about the silence of his cousin Elizabeth – a Holocaust survivor.
Yet he used his words to tell us the story of the tattoo on her arm.
And by doing so he managed to break her 35 years of silence, and the tormenting secrets she took with her to the grave.
Life must go on.
Yet, the story of victims and survivors has to have a voice.
Rabbi Yuval Keren
Thursday, 23 March 2017
Words from our Rabbi
The Book of Genesis tells us that when Jacob was on his deathbed in Egypt, Joseph brought his two sons to him. Jacob did not know who they were. He therefore had to ask Joseph “who are they?” (Genesis 48:8). Why didn't Jacob recognize his own grandchildren? Perhaps because they walked, talked and were dressed like Egyptians rather than Hebrews. Perhaps Jacob could not believe that these assimilated young men were his own grandchildren. When Joseph told him “these are my sons”, Jacob became very worried.
According to a Midrashic story, at that point, the grandchildren said to Jacob "Shema, Israel. Listen Israel (Jacob's other name, given to him by the angel). Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One." Jacob was so relieved to hear these words coming out of the mouths of the two ‘Egyptian’ boys, that he replied "baruch shem k'vod malchuto l'olam va-ed - praised be God's name for ever!"
Jacob was a nomad, a shepherd, a man of the desert. He escaped from his father’s house and established his family and fortune in a far away land. He is used to a life of traveller and his roots in the land are very shallow. One day he is in the land of Canaan, the next day he is in Haran, in Canaan again and then he makes his final journey to the land of Goshen - to Egypt.
Joseph is his favourite son, yet he is a completely different person. Joseph is not a man of travel. He is forced to make one long journey to Egypt as a slave and there he makes his fortune. Joseph plants deep roots in the land of Egypt. Even if we assume that, for understandable reasons, he was not that keen on meeting his elder brothers, he still makes no effort to make contact with his beloved father and his younger brother during the time of his service to Pharaoh. The ex-Canaanite slave becomes the second most powerful man in Egypt and there he absorbs the local culture. He adopts an Egyptian name – ‘ZAPHENATH-PANEAH’ and he marries an Egyptian woman, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. Yet Joseph is careful to give his ‘Egyptian’ children Hebrew rather than Egyptian names - Menasseh and Ephraim.
His children were born in Egypt. They never had the chance of experiencing the nomad life of their grandfather Jacob or the early life of their father Joseph. For them perhaps these family stories of the promise of the land to their great-great-grandfather Abraham and the story of the binding of their great-grandfather Isaac sounded like fairy tales. I can just imagine that, as the children of the second most powerful person in the most powerful country in the world at the time, they could not comprehend the reality of living in a tent and they could not understand the usefulness of a promise of a small piece of land so far away from the safety of their palace.
Yet the challenge of passing the Jewish tradition from Jacob to Joseph and from Joseph to Manasseh and Ephraim is a challenge that we face in every generation. I look at my own history and my own experience of learning my tradition in a small religious school in the city of Ashkelon in Southern Israel. There we obviously spoke Hebrew and we therefore could read the Bible and other Jewish texts at source. At that time, we only had the distraction of a single channel on TV and most of our play time was outdoors. My children live a reality that is completely different to the one I had at their age. They probably could not understand that it is possible to have a month, a week or a day without a TV, smartphones phones, Snapchat and Instagram (whatever they are!).
The challenge that a parent, and indeed a congregation, faces in our world, is one of taking the history and traditions of our grandparents, our parents and ourselves and passing them on to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. How can we teach them about the Holocaust if they did not חס וחלילה ‘ ,dna – ’ God forbid, will never live to experience it? How can we make Jewish ritual, study and prayer meaningful for them as it is for us? How can we ensure that they continue as a link in the chain of our tradition rather than the last one?
We can obviously make the effort and send them to Ruach, our religion school, and to Jewish schools. We can make the effort and practice the ritual at home as a family. Yet, this is not enough and, in many cases, our children might resent these experiences and even feel that they are very alienated from it in the same way that Manasseh and Ephraim must have felt when they tried to make sense of the nomad traditions of their grandfather.
We also need to ask why is it that many synagogues experience a drop in membership and that some do not have that many young adult members, while cultural and educational institutions such as Limmud have experienced an exponential growth over the past years.
The first Limmud started in 1980 with around 80 delegates. 35 years later – Limmud ended this year with around 3,000 participants. But this is not the end of the story for Limmud. There are now over 80(!) Limmud communities in 44(!) countries around the world. There are day-Limmud conferences all over the UK, and there is a Glastonbury-style Limmud conference in the summer.
Limmud is perhaps just one example of how grandparents, parents, young adults and children can bridge the gap between the generations and are able to continue passing on the tradition. Limmud is a great opportunity of instilling strong Jewish values – community, caring, volunteering, charity, creativity, worship and the study of Torah.
Limmud has also become the melting pot of the Anglo-Jewish community. Limmud is a Jewish conference, run by Jews and for Jews. Yet you don’t need to have a Jewish mother, be a member of a synagogue or meet a certain criteria set by the office of the Chief Rabbi in order to aSend.
Limmud delegates come from all denomina,ons and from no denomination. The spirit of Limmud is one of mutual respect and tolerance for all. Everyone has a chance to express their views, and everyone has the right to listen or walk away. The only potential limit imposed by the conference is the physical size of a room and the time of day when a lecture might take place.
As a congregation we need to ask ourselves – what can we learn from the success of the Limmud conference and how can we make the congregants of SPS benefit from it?
Perhaps we should make it possible for our younger generation to aSend Limmud. Perhaps we need to enable Limmud-style learning and teaching opportunities for families within our own community. Perhaps we need to build on the spirit of volunteering and care that we already have in our community and instil these in our young. Perhaps we need to encourage in all our members the feeling that we can all have our share of Jewish learning, worship and practice. ‘LO BASHAMAYIM HI’- all these things are not in the heaven that only a God, or at least a Rabbi, can perform them successfully. These values are in our hearts and in our minds and we can therefore pass them to the next generation. In the process, we will no doubt also learn one or two new tricks from our young ones.
Jacob passed his tradition to Joseph and Joseph passed this very tradition to his two children and they, in return, to their children. Each generation has a different experience of the world, yet the tradition has travelled across 3,500 years to our genera,on. We have the responsibility of passing this tradition to our children, and we must learn to do it in a way that will be meaningful to us, and will be meaningful to them.
Rabbi Yuval Keren
According to a Midrashic story, at that point, the grandchildren said to Jacob "Shema, Israel. Listen Israel (Jacob's other name, given to him by the angel). Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad, Adonai is our God, Adonai is One." Jacob was so relieved to hear these words coming out of the mouths of the two ‘Egyptian’ boys, that he replied "baruch shem k'vod malchuto l'olam va-ed - praised be God's name for ever!"
Jacob was a nomad, a shepherd, a man of the desert. He escaped from his father’s house and established his family and fortune in a far away land. He is used to a life of traveller and his roots in the land are very shallow. One day he is in the land of Canaan, the next day he is in Haran, in Canaan again and then he makes his final journey to the land of Goshen - to Egypt.
Joseph is his favourite son, yet he is a completely different person. Joseph is not a man of travel. He is forced to make one long journey to Egypt as a slave and there he makes his fortune. Joseph plants deep roots in the land of Egypt. Even if we assume that, for understandable reasons, he was not that keen on meeting his elder brothers, he still makes no effort to make contact with his beloved father and his younger brother during the time of his service to Pharaoh. The ex-Canaanite slave becomes the second most powerful man in Egypt and there he absorbs the local culture. He adopts an Egyptian name – ‘ZAPHENATH-PANEAH’ and he marries an Egyptian woman, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. Yet Joseph is careful to give his ‘Egyptian’ children Hebrew rather than Egyptian names - Menasseh and Ephraim.
His children were born in Egypt. They never had the chance of experiencing the nomad life of their grandfather Jacob or the early life of their father Joseph. For them perhaps these family stories of the promise of the land to their great-great-grandfather Abraham and the story of the binding of their great-grandfather Isaac sounded like fairy tales. I can just imagine that, as the children of the second most powerful person in the most powerful country in the world at the time, they could not comprehend the reality of living in a tent and they could not understand the usefulness of a promise of a small piece of land so far away from the safety of their palace.
Yet the challenge of passing the Jewish tradition from Jacob to Joseph and from Joseph to Manasseh and Ephraim is a challenge that we face in every generation. I look at my own history and my own experience of learning my tradition in a small religious school in the city of Ashkelon in Southern Israel. There we obviously spoke Hebrew and we therefore could read the Bible and other Jewish texts at source. At that time, we only had the distraction of a single channel on TV and most of our play time was outdoors. My children live a reality that is completely different to the one I had at their age. They probably could not understand that it is possible to have a month, a week or a day without a TV, smartphones phones, Snapchat and Instagram (whatever they are!).
The challenge that a parent, and indeed a congregation, faces in our world, is one of taking the history and traditions of our grandparents, our parents and ourselves and passing them on to our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. How can we teach them about the Holocaust if they did not חס וחלילה ‘ ,dna – ’ God forbid, will never live to experience it? How can we make Jewish ritual, study and prayer meaningful for them as it is for us? How can we ensure that they continue as a link in the chain of our tradition rather than the last one?
We can obviously make the effort and send them to Ruach, our religion school, and to Jewish schools. We can make the effort and practice the ritual at home as a family. Yet, this is not enough and, in many cases, our children might resent these experiences and even feel that they are very alienated from it in the same way that Manasseh and Ephraim must have felt when they tried to make sense of the nomad traditions of their grandfather.
We also need to ask why is it that many synagogues experience a drop in membership and that some do not have that many young adult members, while cultural and educational institutions such as Limmud have experienced an exponential growth over the past years.
The first Limmud started in 1980 with around 80 delegates. 35 years later – Limmud ended this year with around 3,000 participants. But this is not the end of the story for Limmud. There are now over 80(!) Limmud communities in 44(!) countries around the world. There are day-Limmud conferences all over the UK, and there is a Glastonbury-style Limmud conference in the summer.
Limmud is perhaps just one example of how grandparents, parents, young adults and children can bridge the gap between the generations and are able to continue passing on the tradition. Limmud is a great opportunity of instilling strong Jewish values – community, caring, volunteering, charity, creativity, worship and the study of Torah.
Limmud has also become the melting pot of the Anglo-Jewish community. Limmud is a Jewish conference, run by Jews and for Jews. Yet you don’t need to have a Jewish mother, be a member of a synagogue or meet a certain criteria set by the office of the Chief Rabbi in order to aSend.
Limmud delegates come from all denomina,ons and from no denomination. The spirit of Limmud is one of mutual respect and tolerance for all. Everyone has a chance to express their views, and everyone has the right to listen or walk away. The only potential limit imposed by the conference is the physical size of a room and the time of day when a lecture might take place.
As a congregation we need to ask ourselves – what can we learn from the success of the Limmud conference and how can we make the congregants of SPS benefit from it?
Perhaps we should make it possible for our younger generation to aSend Limmud. Perhaps we need to enable Limmud-style learning and teaching opportunities for families within our own community. Perhaps we need to build on the spirit of volunteering and care that we already have in our community and instil these in our young. Perhaps we need to encourage in all our members the feeling that we can all have our share of Jewish learning, worship and practice. ‘LO BASHAMAYIM HI’- all these things are not in the heaven that only a God, or at least a Rabbi, can perform them successfully. These values are in our hearts and in our minds and we can therefore pass them to the next generation. In the process, we will no doubt also learn one or two new tricks from our young ones.
Jacob passed his tradition to Joseph and Joseph passed this very tradition to his two children and they, in return, to their children. Each generation has a different experience of the world, yet the tradition has travelled across 3,500 years to our genera,on. We have the responsibility of passing this tradition to our children, and we must learn to do it in a way that will be meaningful to us, and will be meaningful to them.
Rabbi Yuval Keren
Thursday, 16 March 2017
Book Club
Our last morning mee,ng will be on Monday 20th March at 11am when we will be discussing The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore.
Leningrad, 1952. Andrei, a young hospital doctor and Anna, a nursery school teacher, are forging a life together in the post-war, post-siege wreckage. But their happiness is precarious, like that of millions of Russians who must avoid the claws of Stalin's merciless Ministry for State security. So when Andrei is asked to treat the seriously ill child of a senior secret police officer, he and Anna are fear-ful. Trapped in an impossible, maybe unwinnable game, can they avoid the whispers and watchful eyes of those who will say or do anything to save themselves?
The Betrayal is a powerful and touching novel of ordinary people in the grip of a terrible and sinis-ter regime, and a moving portrait of a love that will not be extinguished.
You are welcome to come to our book club, even if you haven’t read or even finished a book as our discussions lead us in different directions. As well as discussing the book, we also socialise.
For details of the venue please contact Phyllis Freedman.
We welcome suggestions for books to read and discuss and also are pleased to see new members; all we ask is £1 to cover refreshments.
Leningrad, 1952. Andrei, a young hospital doctor and Anna, a nursery school teacher, are forging a life together in the post-war, post-siege wreckage. But their happiness is precarious, like that of millions of Russians who must avoid the claws of Stalin's merciless Ministry for State security. So when Andrei is asked to treat the seriously ill child of a senior secret police officer, he and Anna are fear-ful. Trapped in an impossible, maybe unwinnable game, can they avoid the whispers and watchful eyes of those who will say or do anything to save themselves?
The Betrayal is a powerful and touching novel of ordinary people in the grip of a terrible and sinis-ter regime, and a moving portrait of a love that will not be extinguished.
You are welcome to come to our book club, even if you haven’t read or even finished a book as our discussions lead us in different directions. As well as discussing the book, we also socialise.
For details of the venue please contact Phyllis Freedman.
We welcome suggestions for books to read and discuss and also are pleased to see new members; all we ask is £1 to cover refreshments.
Thursday, 9 March 2017
Religion School News
For Ruach staff, the Spring Term started with an inspiring training day, organised jointly by Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism. We had the opportunity to learn with a wide variety of experts and to meet colleagues from across London and the South East. Everyone came home energised and enthused for the coming term.
The Spring term is a short term, but it includes a number of festival celebrations. On 11th March we will be celebrating Purim, and on 25th
March we will hold our Ruach Pesach Seder. All children in the community are welcome. Please let Shelley know if you want to bring your child along: religionschool@sps.uk.com
Meanwhile, during February, Ruach students and their guests celebrated Tu Bishevat, the New Year for Trees, with a Tu Bishevat Seder on 4th February. The youngest and oldest students (Lucy Grant and Ilana and Daniel Keren) also planted a plum tree in the garden, next to the olive tree that we planted last year on Tu Bishevat. Many thanks to Rachelle Ellenby for preparing all the fruit that
we tasted during the Seder, and also to Natalie Baynes for choosing the plum tree.
Meanwhile, our parent and toddler group, Mini-Ruach,
is continuing on the second and fourth Friday of the month, together with occasional Saturdays. Come along and join the fun! (Please add pictures)
Mini-Ruach is open to both members and to non-members. It is for babies and children under 5, accompanied by an adult.
The Spring term is a short term, but it includes a number of festival celebrations. On 11th March we will be celebrating Purim, and on 25th
March we will hold our Ruach Pesach Seder. All children in the community are welcome. Please let Shelley know if you want to bring your child along: religionschool@sps.uk.com
Meanwhile, during February, Ruach students and their guests celebrated Tu Bishevat, the New Year for Trees, with a Tu Bishevat Seder on 4th February. The youngest and oldest students (Lucy Grant and Ilana and Daniel Keren) also planted a plum tree in the garden, next to the olive tree that we planted last year on Tu Bishevat. Many thanks to Rachelle Ellenby for preparing all the fruit that
we tasted during the Seder, and also to Natalie Baynes for choosing the plum tree.
Meanwhile, our parent and toddler group, Mini-Ruach,
is continuing on the second and fourth Friday of the month, together with occasional Saturdays. Come along and join the fun! (Please add pictures)
Mini-Ruach is open to both members and to non-members. It is for babies and children under 5, accompanied by an adult.
Thursday, 26 January 2017
Religion School News
The January term starts, as usual, with an INSET training day for Ruach staff. We attend a Limmud-style day, with a choice of sessions, for teachers working in religion schools within Progressive Judaism. The day is organised jointly by Liberal Judaism and the Movement for Reform Judaism. Apart from being a fantastic learning opportunity, it also gives us a chance to compare notes with our colleagues, and benefit from their experiences.
Also during January, Ruach is holding one of its regular PACT mornings (Parents And Children Together). This is an opportunity for parents to spend part of the morning in class with their child, and to meet their teachers.
When they do come into class, parents will find us preparing to make a short film as an entry for the Liberal Judaism LAFTAs competition. The film will be on the theme: what would your community look like in the Messianic Age? To prepare for making the film, we have been studying the special LAFTAs curriculum, designed by Rabbi Margaret Jacobi, covering the topics of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and Justice and Kindness, as well as learning what we mean by the Messianic Age.
Meanwhile, our parent and toddler group, Mini-Ruach, is running regularly. During December, we took delivery of some fantastic soft play equipment. Dates for Mini-Ruach sessions can be found on the SPS website and on the Mini-Ruach noticeboard in the Kiddush Room.
Also during January, Ruach is holding one of its regular PACT mornings (Parents And Children Together). This is an opportunity for parents to spend part of the morning in class with their child, and to meet their teachers.
When they do come into class, parents will find us preparing to make a short film as an entry for the Liberal Judaism LAFTAs competition. The film will be on the theme: what would your community look like in the Messianic Age? To prepare for making the film, we have been studying the special LAFTAs curriculum, designed by Rabbi Margaret Jacobi, covering the topics of Tikkun Olam (repairing the world) and Justice and Kindness, as well as learning what we mean by the Messianic Age.
Meanwhile, our parent and toddler group, Mini-Ruach, is running regularly. During December, we took delivery of some fantastic soft play equipment. Dates for Mini-Ruach sessions can be found on the SPS website and on the Mini-Ruach noticeboard in the Kiddush Room.
Thursday, 19 January 2017
Come to your senses quiz
After months of planning, the SPS Fundraising Group took it upon themselves to hold a quiz with a difference, which involved using all of our five senses. We held five rounds plus an ongoing Marathon Round.
We worked as a team to put together an evening of activities together with lots of laughter! The Schindler Hall was quickly buzzing with around 60 people, who started the evening with a Marathon round whilst indulging in a fish and chip supper, desserts, drinks and nibbles.
Halfway through the evening, we held a raffle where many prizes were won.
It gave us, as a group, much pleasure in seeing just how much everybody enjoyed themselves, after which we had a lot of positive feedback.
In total, a figure of £660 was raised. It has been decided that £300 will be donated to Leo Baeck Education Centre to support 60 families who have lost all their personal belongings in the recent Haifa fires.
The remaining £360 will be used by SPS.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY:
SATURDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 2017 - SUPPER QUIZ
Amanda Lesley
We worked as a team to put together an evening of activities together with lots of laughter! The Schindler Hall was quickly buzzing with around 60 people, who started the evening with a Marathon round whilst indulging in a fish and chip supper, desserts, drinks and nibbles.
Halfway through the evening, we held a raffle where many prizes were won.
It gave us, as a group, much pleasure in seeing just how much everybody enjoyed themselves, after which we had a lot of positive feedback.
In total, a figure of £660 was raised. It has been decided that £300 will be donated to Leo Baeck Education Centre to support 60 families who have lost all their personal belongings in the recent Haifa fires.
The remaining £360 will be used by SPS.
DATE FOR YOUR DIARY:
SATURDAY 25TH FEBRUARY 2017 - SUPPER QUIZ
Amanda Lesley
Thursday, 12 January 2017
Faith's Got Talent
Over fifty representatives of diverse faith groups from around Enfield met in the Schindler Hall on Saturday 26 November for “Faith’s Got Talent”, a celebration of the rich and varied skills present in those communities.
SPS members mixed with members of local mosques, Hindu temples and Christian churches, amongst others. The talent on display included Christian rappers, Bahai singers and Hindu dancers. SPS’s talent was well represented both by Daniel Keren, who played not just the traditional shofar calls, but a selection of TV and movies themes on a variety of shofarot, and by our Singing Group, who entertained those present with spirited renditions of Shalom Alechem and Adon Olam.
After the evening Rabbi Yuval said “Interfaith work is an essenal part of our role as a liberal community. I was delighted that we were able to welcome our neighbours in faith to SPS.” Bob Dulin echoed Yuval’s remarks, saying “I’m already looking forward to next year’s event. From now until then, Freda and I will be practising our rumba."
Julian
SPS members mixed with members of local mosques, Hindu temples and Christian churches, amongst others. The talent on display included Christian rappers, Bahai singers and Hindu dancers. SPS’s talent was well represented both by Daniel Keren, who played not just the traditional shofar calls, but a selection of TV and movies themes on a variety of shofarot, and by our Singing Group, who entertained those present with spirited renditions of Shalom Alechem and Adon Olam.
After the evening Rabbi Yuval said “Interfaith work is an essenal part of our role as a liberal community. I was delighted that we were able to welcome our neighbours in faith to SPS.” Bob Dulin echoed Yuval’s remarks, saying “I’m already looking forward to next year’s event. From now until then, Freda and I will be practising our rumba."
Julian
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