Norwich Progressive Jewish Community

From the Chair – Feb 2024

The secular new year has certainly been a busy one. Rosie went to the Beit Din on January 9th and we will be celebrating her admission to Judaism at the February service.

Our Beit Midrash was well attended and as lively as ever.  A generation of Jewish scholars is emerging!

On January 26th, Hannah represented our community at the Holocaust Memorial Service. Her Hebrew singing filled St Peter Mancroft Church, and the excellent acoustics really enhanced the sound. Many people came up to me afterwards to comment on Hannah’s beautiful spiritual contribution. It really was the centrepiece of the whole event. Those of us in attendance were bursting with pride! The following day, we travelled down to Diss where Hannah celebrated a shared service with Ruth Stone and the Suffolk community. Thanks to Eric, some of you were able to zoom in to a lovely service which was followed by a chavurah lunch. Always good to be with our Suffolk friends.

Hannah Leyns (chants) The Song of the Sea at Diss

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing people at our February service to share in Rosie’s admission. Rosie will be providing the kiddish to celebrate her achievement.  

She has been co-opted on to council for some time now and she does a great deal of work for us behind the scenes.

She co-ordinates the Beit Midrash group, sorts out the Torah and Haftarah readings and more recently has started to compile the Yahrzeit list.

I hope you all received the newsletter from the NLPS Trust. Their donation to us took them over the one-million-pound mark. We are heavily featured in their newsletter, and this includes comments some of you made about the much improved quality of the zoom offering. Thanks to those who contributed.

Happy February,

Annie

From the Rabbi – Jan 2024

Va-eira 
12-13 January 2024/3 Shevat 5784
 
Erev Shabbat – 7.30 short service with study – zoom only 
Yeridat HaDorot – Onwards and Upwards, or is it Downhill from Here?

Rabbinical Literature knows the concept of Yeridat HaDorot, which means ‘the decline of the generations’. Later generations are further away from insight and truth and should challenge the rulings of their ancestors only with great reluctancy, if at all. This concept goes against our progressive tradition, as its name (‘progressive’) already makes clear. Yet, we too claim that we stand in relation to our past. Can we make any sense of this ‘decline of the generations’? All generations welcome to start shabbat together in prayer and reflection.
 
Shabbat morning – Va-eira
9.45 Beith Midrash/House of Study – Old Meeting House (no zoom)

Where do I begin? The New Year of Trees and Other Beginnings.

This month of January knows two New Years: the secular or Gregorian New Year at the beginning and the New Year for Trees, Tu B’shvat, this year on 24-25 January. In our Beith Midrash, we’ll use the latter to reflect on the importance of beginnings in our tradition. Are we natals rather than mortals? 


The House of Study welcomes all members and friends. 


Shacharit 11.30 Old Meeting House and Zoom 
Torah reading: Exodus 6: 14-28
Haftarah: Isaiah 42: 5-17

From the Rabbi – Nov 2023

I am writing this in the week of parashat Lech Lecha. ‘Go forth from your land, your birthplace, your father’s house’, God tells Abram, ‘I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you.’ (Genesis 12: 1-2) 

And so, Abram, 75 years old, goes forth, taking his wife Sarai with him, as well as his nephew Lot and his possessions and people.

Taking up our belongings and moving away from our parental home, our land and our language is a part of our history and of our identity. Last names often tell part of that story. The poet Marge Piercy puts it poignantly in her poem ‘Maggid’, when she honours those who left for their ‘courage to let go of the door, the handle…The courage to abandon the graves dug into the hill… The courage to walk out of the pain that is known, into the pain that cannot be imagined, mapless…We Jews are all born of wanderers, with shoes under our pillows’ (From ‘Maggid’. For the full poem, see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57595/maggid)

Yet, our ancestors also left with the dream and the hope that they would be the last to leave their home and that their children could stay wherever they were. Some of them changed their name to express that aspiration. We may regret their decision but cannot but admire their dream.

In parashat Lech Lecha Abram’s journey is not the last one, not even in this parashah. Soon after his arrival, famine makes the family travel to Egypt and later on, Lot will leave for the rich land of the Jordan, with the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Later again, Hagar runs away into the desert to escape Sarai’s ill-treatment. She is met by an angel, who tells her to return. Hagar, the slave woman is the only woman to be promised multiple descendants and the only woman to name a place. (Genesis 16: 7-15)

The last few weeks have been very dark for all of us. As individuals and as a community we may feel as if we have no longer a sense of safety. Some of us fear for the safety of loved ones and we are all overwhelmed by the stories of destruction in Israel and Palestine, day by day. Emotions run high. As I told those of you who came to light candles together on Friday, I find myself lost for words – even scared of words, as they so easily now antagonise.

At the same time, I am grateful for a tradition that commands me to light candles every week as an act that brings joy and peace. I am grateful for texts that do not provide easy answers, but instead asks me to hold ambiguities. The mighty patriarch and the lowly slave woman both receive the same promise. The coming weeks, months, perhaps years are going to be hard. We are not without resources and we are not in this alone. I hope that each and everyone of us will be blessed with the courage to look at the unknown and see a better future, sustained by one another and by our tradition.

Hannah

From the Chair – Nov 2023

Well – it’s been quite a couple of months. After a very successful High Holy Days with terrific participation from the community, we reached Sukkot.

Hannah was sadly unwell with Covid, but we were fortunate to get Rabbi Margaret Jacobi to lead our Interfaith service. This went extremely well and many local friends from all faiths and none were there. The Sheriff of Norwich stayed beyond her time frame as she was so interested in the service and the related festivities. 

As we were celebrating two of what are supposed to be the most joyous occasions in Judaism, news of the massacre in Southern Israel was becoming known.  The conflict continues and I’m sure will be addressed elsewhere in this newsletter, so I don’t wish to dwell on it here.

What I do want to speak about is Heritage Day (on September 10th), when Linda and I co-led a talk about Liberal Judaism. This was at the NHC, and the dialogue that took place was terrific. People were really interested in the Liberal perspective and the discussion continued even once we’d left the room. Linda and I worked well together – myself with my traditional Liberal Jewish background and Linda as a progressive Jew with experience covering the conflict in the Middle East. We complimented one another well and I think it was our dialogue that prompted such a good response. More of these to come, I hope!

I would also like to thank Hannah for providing a space for Kabbalat Shabbat prayers. It is likely that these will be continuing every Friday for as long as we need them. It has been hard to establish the right format, but I think that last Fridays’ gathering was quite beautiful. As ever, Hannah is sensitive, thoughtful, and on point with the way she leads our community. I’m sure others will share with me in thanking her for all the support and leadership she has shown over the past few weeks.

With my very best wishes, Annie

Jurnet’s House

An Opportunity to Put Jewish Culture and History on the Map

The Jewish Community, that’s Community with a big “C”, working in conjunction with the University of East Anglia, and the city, has been given the opportunity, dare I say obligation, to put our history on the map through the offer of Jurnet’s House, the 12th century dwelling of Norwich Jewish merchant Isaac Jurnet.   Also known as ‘The Music House’, the Grade 1 listed building has fallen into disrepair but has the potential to be much more than just a relic.  It can, with vision, commitment and yes, huge financial investment, become a centre for culture, history, study, and research.  A touchstone for not just Norwich Jews, but hopefully for world Jewry.   

On Sunday, 30th July, discussion of the project drew a standing room only crowd to the NHC.  There were members from both Norwich based Jewish communities and the wider Jewish community, as well as academic leaders from UEA, the Jewish Heritage Group and the Jurnet’s House Group.   

The project is in the very early stages.  More is unknown than is known.  However, Phase 1 envisions restoration (use and access) of the under croft following an archaeological survey. Phase II would see the renovation of other parts of the building to house a cultural centre as well as a digital heritage lab.  

When asked what I thought about it all, I was obviously enthusiastic.  I thought, not only could Jurnet’s House serve to preserve and memorialise our often, troubled history, but even more importantly, it can become a venue to celebrate the achievements and contributions that Jews have made to humanity despite the persecution and discrimination that we, as a people, have suffered.  What better way to combat antisemitism and what better way to honour those victims of pogroms, expulsions, and the Holocaust, then to educate the general public about the contributions of Jewish scientists, composers, educators, philosophers, musicians, civil rights activists, Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners. 

It’s not going to be easy.  But with determination, commitment, expertise, and yup, a whole lot of goodwill and megabucks, Jurnet’s House can become an even better version of what it was…a Jewish home and place of learning in historic Norwich.  The opportunity and responsibility are with us, because this city’s history is our history too.

(September 2023 Update).