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*Birmingham communities bring in Shabbat at 20:00 throughout the summer

You can find details of this week's Torah reading, Maftir and Haftarah in our weekly Daf Hashavua by clicking here.

Thursday 24 June, 2021

Tens of thousands of families have been hit by the pandemic, both within and outside the Jewish community. Children are at risk of going hungry over the summer 

 

Following the success of last year’s food collection campaign, US Chesed is running the project again this summer.

 

US Chesed is encouraging members to donate food items such as tinned fish, tinned fruit and cereal to help us top up our weekly food parcels during the summer months. US Chesed is happy to drop off collection boxes at your shul (or at designated members’ homes) and pick them up once they are full.

 

If your shul is interested in taking part, please contact my colleague Yael Peleg on ypeleg@theus.org.uk. To see what food items we need, click here.

The Three Weeks: three part education series

 

Join Golders Green Synagogue's Rabbi Dr Harvey Belovski for a special series of Lunch & Learns as he explores the Three Weeks - the saddest time in the Jewish calendar leading up to Tisha B'Av.

 

Starting on Tuesday (29 June) at 1pm and continuing at 1pm on Tuesdays 6 and 13 July, Rabbi Belovski will explore the psychology of rebuke looking at the Haftarot of the Three Weeks and the Talmud’s account of the destruction of the Temple. All programmes will be availlable to watch live on and on demand on TheUS.tv and Facebook. Click here to see a poster about the series.

 

This Sunday is the Fast of the 17 Tammuz. You can find out more about the fast day and the Three Weeks on our website.

And finally...

 

The Rabbinical Council of the United Synagogue held its AGM this week and elected a new Chair, Rabbi Pinchas Hackenbroch of Woodside Park United Synagogue who takes over from Highgate's Rabbi Nicky Liss, and a new executive made up of Rabbis Dr Moshe Freedman, Barry Lerer, Elchonon Feldman and Marc Levene.

 

Rabbis Daniel Epstein, Yoni Golker, Nick Kett, Ben Kurzer, Jeremy Lawrence and Mordechai Wollenberg have been elected to the RCUS committee. We wish them all mazal tov and much hatzlacha with their important work.

 

We thank the outgoing team of Rabbis Dr Harvey Belovski, Shlomo Odze, David Mason and Dr Yoni Birnbaum for their many years of dedicated service, and, although he will send me an angry message for singling him out, we pay particular tribute to the extraordinary work of Rabbi Liss.

 

As many of you will know, these roles are both voluntary and demanding, and the role of Chair particularly so. Rabbi Liss makes himself available to his rabbinate - and his members - around the clock and is always there to offer advice and support. The past 15 months have been particularly challenging during the pandemic where Rabbi Liss has worked closely with Jo Grose, our Communities Director, to provide Covid guidelines for shuls to keep our members safe. He has kindly agreed to stay on in this capacity as we near, please God, the end of the pandemic.

 

We are delighted that Rabbi Liss has handed over the reins to such a worthy successor in Rabbi Hackenbroch and we look forward to supporting him and his team every step of the way.

Shabbat shalom and Tzom kal, have an easy fast on Sunday.

 

Richard Verber

Communications Director,

United Synagogue

From where can the Jewish people derive comfort and consolation? Click here to find out in this week's D'var Torah by the Chief Rabbi.

Welcome to 'Tell US', where we invite you to contribute a joke, a poem or a story. This week's contribution is by Stephen Miller.

 

Diversity in our society

 

So, you are you and I am me

That’s the meaning of diversity

Pure and simple we are not equal

Since we are each, unique people

 

We should love and value ourselves for

Who and what we are at the very core

Of the human being that we are

Not, or seeking to be, on a par

With any other person

That’s diversity in action

 

Diversity exists in, and is all around, us

In our beautiful world, and so we must

Try to appreciate more and better live with the fact

That in countless ways, we’re all the better for that

 

In that vein, Jewish we may well all be

But we observe our Judaism differently

While never forgetting that we’re all made in God’s likeness

So, respect, even if we can’t accept, the differences among us

 

Diversity is the zeitgeist of our time

But surely, its origin is just divine

As indeed is Shabbat and may all of yours be

Divine, celebrating with friends and/or family.

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