Kehillah runs ongoing Adult Education sessions throughout the year, coordinated by Rabbi Leah with occasional guests speakers and presenters. To see what events we have planned, see our calendar or email our Administrator for information on what’s on in our Kehillah, as well as links to current information & events that may be of interest to our members.
Recent Adult Education Sessions
Choosing Tzedekah/Justice – Kehillah North London and New Stoke Newington Shul Talmud series:
Our now-yearly tradition, a joint Talmud course with our Masorti neighbours at New Stoke Newington Shul.
Tzedekah – giving charity or doing justice – deals with questions of who is deserving, how do we give, how do we adjudicate between different needs etc. It is one of the most foundational principles of Judaism. But how do you decide who to give it to and how to ‘do justice’? What counts as a ‘good cause’? How do we ensure that the money reaches those in need? And what about systemic issues like poverty and homelessness and hunger? Through careful study of Talmudic passages, we’ll be investigating these kinds of questions.
The first two sessions were taught by Rabbi Leah Jordan and focused on building text skills and familiarity with the Talmudic language. The following two sessions were taught by Rabbi Roni Tabick and looked more into some of the conceptual questions. The final session was more discussion-based, as we reflected on all we’ve learned and what it can teach us for our communities today.
Avodah Aravit: the racialisation of labour in Israel-Palestine
A conversation about who does what work in Israel Palestine – and why it counts. Perhaps you have thought about fruit picking on kibbutz, or who serves tea in cafes in Jaffa or Haifa, or who builds the buildings? When British Jews talk about Israel, it is often through a spiritual, national or historical lens. We less often think about work from 1948 to now. Key to this is Avodah Aravit – Arab work – as well as Avodah Ivrit (Hebrew work).
The Venn Diagram of Zionism/Anti-Zionism
Zionism? Anti-Zionism? Being specific and thoughtful about what is useful and not about these labels! To allow us to find common ground and perhaps also explore together relevant political ideas like normalisation, nationalism, etc.
An evening with Solutions Not Sides
We were joined by two women: a Palestinian speaker from East Jerusalem who is a PhD candidate at the Hebrew University and an Israeli speaker from Tel Aviv who works for IDEA: The Center for Liberal Democracy.
Solutions Not Sides does Israel-Palestine education, critical thinking about win-win solutions, and brings the voices of Palestinian and Israeli peace builders to speak to communities, schools and workplaces.
Beyond the Bund
A history of alternatives and challenges to Zionism from political, religious, mystical, socialist, cultural opposition. A Member of Kehillah had some really rich sources to dig into on the history of the liberal and reform movements, satmar, assimilation, pacifism, socialism and a little bit of tikkun olam for the mystics among us.
Intersectionality: Mizrahim & Palestinians
An open, critical and straightforward discussion on the link between the oppression of Mizrahim (Jews of Middle Eastern and North African descent) and the oppression of Palestinians in Palestine-Israel. Our Administrator shared about his PhD research, then we read together two linked texts by Edward Said and Ella Shohat, and concluded with our reflections on the entire Israel-Palestine Ad Ed Series.
Other topics from previous years have included:
– Difference and Deviance – the Limits of community. Are there limits to who we can be in community with? What differences can’t be tolerated? This course was in partnership with our Masorti neighbours at Stoke Newington Shul
– Jewish history (Biblical and Medieval, the modern Jewish denominations, Zionism and Israel-Palestine, the Shoah/Holocaust).
– “Black & Jewish Journeys” workshop by the Jewish Museum about Black and Jewish migration as part of their Collecting Inclusive Judaism Community Tour.
– A three week course titled “Abominable Texts? – Homosexuality in Rabbinic Writings”, where we took a fresh look at key texts in the Talmud and later Rabbinic writings about male and female homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
– A 3-session Shabbat Song Sharing. This musical-educational-liturgical series covered the melodies we know and love to sing on Shabbat, as well as some lesser-known or new-to-us favourites.
– Sessions on “Trans-formations: The multiple genders of the Talmud”, about the space our texts create for trans, non-binary and queer people today.
Rabbi Leah leads the majority of the sessions, and we hear other perspectives and connect to the broader London and British Jewish world on topical and current issues as well.
Hebrew and Further Jewish Learning
While we do not directly offer Hebrew Lessons, some of our members have used the following:
—The JW3, the Jewish community centre of London, offers regular Hebrew classes at all levels: https://www.jw3.org.uk/languages
—This Is Not An Ulpan offers Hebrew & Arabic courses online at all levels: https://www.thisisnotanulpan.com/
—Friend of Kehillah, Matan Rosenstrauch, offers various levels of Modern Hebrew. For more information you can visit his website at https://matanhebrew.com/
—The Ark Synagogue often provides several levels of Hebrew. You can see their offering at https://www.arksynagogue.org/learn-hebrew-online/
If you are interested in learning Hebrew or doing any other kind of progressive Jewish learning in the UK, we can also recommend the Lehrhaus Adult Jewish learning programme at the Leo Baeck College (the British progressive rabbinical college— https://lbc.ac.uk/study-with-us/lehrhaus/), Azara–Opening the Beit Midrash (a UK-based cross-communal yeshiva— https://www.azara.org.uk/), and Queer Yeshiva (https://www.yeshiva.lgbt/). They all have a range of courses available both in person and held online.