Wanted to share Chief Rabbi Sacks article about what my mother, saved by the British Army on D-day, can not believe is happening in 2018 U. K., neither did many in Germany 1933 of what was coming. https://www.timesofisrael.com/former-uk-chief-rabbi-lord-sacks-jeremy-corbyn-is-a-dangerous-anti-semite/ And to do justice and give the other side of the story a space of reflection. “Siding…
Category: Jewish
What will be the next step
We feel ashamed of a country that was actively involved in the Holocaust now engaged in passing a law to have all references and teachings to say the contrary. I am afraid that the next step will be for the Polish government to close down all the concentration camps that show the horrors the Nazis…
The Art of being Jewish
A very energetic member of Belsize Square Synagogue whom I sat with last Sunday during the shul’s annual Channukah Market, told me he came up with the trademark Belsize Square should promote itself and stands for “The Art of being Jewish”. A market with members making coffee, while not in court as Queen Counsellors, or…
Remembrance weekend
While in the UK the fallen in the wars are remembered, we had a remembrance weekend starting with our usual Friday Kristallnacht service and on Sunday a Music at Belsize concert “Romantic Vienna and the Jews” featuring the Wallace ensemble under Ben Wolf and the Chair of the committee Phil Keller conducting Mahler and…
Orthodox Jewry splits
As the objective of this blog is to inform on attitudes towards Judaism, I feel it is my obligation as a Religious Minister especially living in the UK where the issue has grown out of proportion, because of the lecture on homosexuality given by Senior Rabbi Dweck of the Spanish and Portuguese Community. Here is…
L’Dor vaDor
Last weekend two Synagogues that are the guardians of their unique musical legacy, the Pestallotzistrasse from Berlin and Belsize Square from London, showed their very best. These synagogues are the embodiment of the great tradition of the Liberale German Jewry and its renowned liturgy, together with to my knowledge, two others, one in NY and…
The New Synagogue on Oranienburgerstrasse- A unique testimony to and symbol of German Judaism
The actual sanctuary as before it’s destruction in WWII and the place where we stood on during the celebration and memorial services , this how it looked like in all its splendor. What is left of it, is the courtyard we stood during the commemoration as pictured in my previous post and in this…
The Synagogue of St Poelten, Austria
At a half an hour by train west from Vienna is the capital of Lower Austria, the city of Sankt Poelten and its vicinities, Boehemkirchen, Neulengbach and Eichgraben where my paternal family comes from and great grandparents and siblings of my grandparents are buried. My great grandfather used to commute to Vienna to conduct his…
Liverpool a city that shines
We were invited to perform at a wedding in Liverpool, doing the singing at the marvelous Synagogue in Princess Road, there I was chanting a duo with my son Yohel, standing next to Rabbi Emeritus Rodney Mariner and participating together with two orthodox Rabbis one from Manchester and one from Liverpool. The couple, from both…
The white robe
You might wonder in a blog that focuses on attitudes and behaviour against Israel and Judaism, why I am not writing on the U.K. Labour party’s anti-Semitism scandal instead of the use of the white robe, but you will, at the end understand, besides, you can read all of UK politics in the media, or…
From Vienna to Straßburg
Two wonderful musical offerings this week, beginning with Matthias Bartolomey and Klemens Bitmann on Monday at the Austrian Embassy in London, celebrating 150 years Austrian Embassy at Belgrave Square a concert with a personal invitation from the Ambassador together with many personalities from all the spectrum of diplomacy in the UK and focused on their new…
A wedding in Alicante
A weekend in Spain. The daughter and son of very active members of our shul, getting married and Rabbi Altshuler and myself officiating between so many known faces of our extended family of Belsize Square Synagogue. The Hotel could not have been a better choice. The wonderful setting of the chupa and party, the hospitality…
