Jerusalem Archaeology

I have always enjoyed history and in the same way I’m fascinated by archaeology. Read more

Shabbat Emor

Read more

Shabbat Achrei Mot–Kedoshim

Love Your Neighbour Read more

Israel Independence Day

The Jewish calendar has now entered the memorial season. Read more

Shabbat Tazria Metzora

Read more

Zionism Today

Every year, there is an overload of Pesach newsletters and blogs, usually regurgitating everything we have heard before, rationally and mystically, about slavery, freedom and survival. Read more

Pesach in every generation

Every year on Pesach at the Seder, we read “In every generation they stand against us to destroy us.” Read more

Shabbat Hagadol

Read more

Brandolini’s Law

It was the historian Salo Wittmayer Baron who coined the phrase “The Oy Vay version of Jewish history.” Only looking at the bad and ignoring the glimpses of good. Read more

Shabbat Vayikra

Semicha Read more

Varieties of Judaism

We Jews have always liked to argue about religion and who is kosher and who is not. Read more

Shabbat Vayakhel Pekudei

Read more

Little Things

When I was six years old, my father had founded Carmel College, and he moved the family into the English countryside west of London. Read more

Shabbat  Ki Tisah

What does God look like?
Read more

Zachor Purim

This coming Shabbat, before Purim, is always called Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of remembering. Read more

Shabbat Tetzaveh

Read more

Desecration

The Epstein scandal is possibly the most serious example of the abuse of power and wealth in recent years in an open society. Read more

Holocaust Day Scandals

I have always been conflicted about the response to the Holocaust. As a young boy, I was shocked to see pictorial evidence of how cruel human beings can be to each other. Read more

Shabbat Yitro

Mount Sinai Read more

New Year for Trees

The fifteenth of Shvat in Hebrew is Tu B’Shvat. This year it is on Monday the 2nd of February. Read more

Shabbat Beshalach

Read more

The Haskalah

Read more

Shabbat Bo

Shabbat Vaeyra

Hearing but not Listening Read more

Litvak or Chassid?

Someone close to me explained why he thought I was so dismissive, particularly of religious views I did not agree with. Read more

Shabbat Shemot 

Read more

Handel’s Messiah

Read more

Shabbat Mikeytz

Read more

A minor fast

Perhaps the least important notable date in the Jewish calendar is the Tenth of Tevet , which occurs ten days after Chanukah. Read more

Shabbat Vayigash

Belief Read more

Next Page »