Our July service was an auspicious event. It was Rabbi Gershon’s first service as an ordained Rabbi, following his ordination the previous Sunday – you may have read the article about this in a recent Jewish Chronicle. Council presented him with a small gift on behalf of the NLJC to mark this occasion. And thank you to Lily for her wonderful singing, both accompanying Rabbi Gershon and leading some of the prayers.
Secondly, I want to thank Kim, Philip and Stephen for reading the parsha together in what was described as a ‘Yad relay!’ They made a great team and didn’t drop the baton. Philip’s subsequent commentary on the portion (Balak) was deeply thoughtful and a real call to action for us all.
You’ll have seen from Annie’s email that we won’t be holding our normal Shabbat service on Saturday, 10 August. Instead, we are starting our Heritage project and looking at how we all came to join the Norwich Liberal Jewish Community. This should be a wonderful opportunity for us to share our personal stories. We will be meeting in the Peill Room from 11.15am and you can find further details of The Heritage Project on Page 16 of the August newsletter.
A reminder that after our service on Saturday 14 September, we have a guest speaker, Debra Bruner, from The Together Plan, who will be talking about this charity’s work with isolated Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. We have invited members of the Norwich Hebrew Community to join us for what should be a compelling talk. I do hope you can join us.
Finally, Kim and Philip will be leading our High Holy Days services again this year – Rabbi Gershon is already committed to lead services in the USA. Do please let Kim or Philip know whether you will be able to contribute.
I look forward to seeing you on 10 August. Peter