View Web Version

Good morning. This week I write with news of two important initiatives: the schools' Certificate of Religious Practice and a consultation on making the United Synagogue more welcoming to Jews and people of colour.

 

Back in March when we took the difficult decision to close our shuls, we knew it would have an impact on the Certificate of Religious Practice (CRP) and therefore entry to Jewish schools for 21/22. The Office of the Chief Rabbi and the United Synagogue rapidly put together a steering group with representatives of schools and synagogues which I chaired. The desire was to make the new temporary arrangements as straightforward as possible. Working with Jewish schools under the authority of the Chief Rabbi (including US and JCAT schools), the Department for Education and the Office of the Schools Adjudicator we have now published the arrangements which you can read here and there's more on this below.

 

***

 

I am sure, like me, you were disgusted by the antisemitic comments of the disgraced grime star, Wiley, and the lack of action by the social media giants. The Chief Rabbi was absolutely right to call publicly on the chief executives of Twitter and Instagram to do better and, as you may have seen, the United Synagogue suspended its use of social media for 48 hours alongside many other Jewish organisations.

 

Wiley's racist rant was not just offensive and wrong, it also pitted two minorities against each other. Caught in the crossfire were many black Jews, including, I know, some of our members.

 

The Torah is very clear that all human beings are created equal. As New West End Synagogue’s Rabbi Dr Moshe Freedman wrote in his powerful Jewish Chronicle article last week:

 

"The inherent Divinity in every human being, regardless of any of their defining characteristics such as gender, race or religion is so fundamental, it is the very first lesson we are taught about our own creation in the story of Genesis."

 

Following the brutal murder of George Floyd, the United Synagogue has spent time considering how it can be more welcoming to people of colour in all of its spaces. Conversations have taken place among lay leaders and senior professionals to explore how we can capture the experiences of our members of colour as well as from people of colour – Jewish or not – who have interacted with the organisation.

 

Today I am an announcing that I am leading a consultation on this and I am asking for your experiences. The consultation has the support of the Trustees, Office of the Chief Rabbi, the London Beth Din, the Rabbinic Council of the United Synagogue, our Equalities Committee, Chief Executive and senior leaders. I am grateful to the members of our review advisory committee including Jews of colour who are giving of their time and experience to help guide us.

 

So who do I want to hear from? You might be a United Synagogue member of colour – or know someone who is. You might be a Jewish or non-Jewish visitor to one of our synagogues for a simcha. You might work for the United Synagogue, or perhaps you used to. We’d like to hear from you. In addition to our shul spaces, we would welcome feedback from experiences in our cemeteries, engaging with our lay leaders and working with our head office including the London Beth Din and programmes including Tribe and Young US.

 

You can give us your feedback by clicking here. You can submit feedback, anonymously if you wish, up to the end of Thursday 20 August. Feedback will be analysed and we will draw up a document of practical ideas to form part of a training programme across the organisation. We will also share a summary paper with the Board of Deputies' Commission on Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish Community.

 

Please do share the link with family and friends even if they are not US members – it is very important we reach out to people of colour who have interacted with our organisation to hear their views.

 

Thank you very much indeed for your time.

Shabbat shalom,

 

Michael Goldstein

President, United Synagogue

 

How can we successfully pass on our Judaism through to the generations to come?

 

In Parashat Ve’etchanan, the Torah presents us with the first paragraph of the Shema. In it we have the crucially important mitzvah ‘ושננתם לבניך – teach these words of Torah to your children’. I would have expected the Torah to tell us how to educate our children immediately afterwards. Instead, having discussed our children it moves on to discuss us. After ‘ושננתם לבניך – educate your children, It says ודברת בם – you must speak words of Torah, בשבתך בביתך – when you’re at home, ובלכתך בדרך – and while you’re on your way, בשכבך – In the evening time, ובקומך – and in the morning time.

 

So the Torah wants us to know that the finest way for us to raise our children to be proud Jews is through personal example. ‘ושננתם לבניך’ how best can we educate them? It is through ודברת בם. If we speak words of Torah every day, in addition to talking about sport, the weather, politics and so on, let’s speak Torah. Let’s express our pride in our tradition, let’s give our family the thrill of recitation of brachot and performance of mitzvot. And this should not only be בשבתך בביתך – when we are at home it should also be ובלכתך בדרך – while we’re in the workplace, while we’re abroad, while we’re on vacation. Our Judaism is equally important to us outside of our home as it is within our homes.

 

ובשכבך ובקומך - at all times of day, evening and morning and if we are men, we must put on Tefilin ‘ לאות על ידך…לטטפת ביןעיניך’ – upon our arms and between our eyes. Let our children see us observing these mitzvot with pride and davening to Hashem with devotion.

 

‘על מזזות ביתך- let them see the ‘mezuzot on the doorpost of our homes’ so that they will be fully immersed within a happy, joyous and meaningful Jewish way of life.

 

Now, of course, we perform the mitzvah of ‘ושננתם לבניך’ through The formal education of our children and sometimes we delegate that task to others, such as when we send our children to school. But let us never forget that when it comes to the success or failure of our tradition, and the passing on of our Jewish heritage through to the generations to come, Judaism is not taught. It is caught.

 

Shabbat Shalom

 

This email was sent with love from the United Synagogue.

If you no longer wish to receive this email, please unsubscribe here