Welcome
The New Month
Re-cap past events
EuroJews events
Membership
News from Community folks (happenings, questions, etc...)
If you have information that you would like to go in the July Newsletter,
please e-mail it to me before the 22nd. laura(at)handinhandarts.com
:
Hopefully you will enjoy the new look of the EuroJews website. A new feature is the Members' Forum (see the link from http://www.eurojews.org/members.html)...a virtual space for
our community to gather - room for online discussion, fun,
announcements, recipes, learning - something we have been hoping to
create for a long time is now finally with us!
To ensure a safe space for all of this, we are restricting it to members
of EuroJews only. If you haven't paid your 20 euros, you are still
welcome to sign up for a month "trial", and we hope that you will join
EuroJews within that month. As you know, the money is used to support
our activities, including to help increase attendance at our events - a
small price to pay for a worthy cause! If you would like to join
EuroJews please contact beatrice(at)eurojews.org" also see membership below.
- Nathan
The Moon of Sivan is "The Moon of Revelations" It’s a time to share midrashim (Jewish Stories), Torah text and other inspiring pieces of literature.
Here are two poems to perhaps reflect upon this month.
"The World is not something to
look at, it is something to be in."
-Mark Rudman
I look and look.
Looking's a way of being: one becomes,
sometimes, a pair of eyes walking.
Walking wherever looking takes one.
The eyes
dig and burrow into the world.
They touch
fanfare, howl, madrigal, clamor.
World and the past of it,
not only
visible present, solid and shadow
that looks at one looking.
And language? Rhythms
of echo and interruption?
That's
a way of breathing.
breathing to sustain
looking,
walking and looking,
through the world,
in it.
*Denise Levertov*
What can they do
to you? Whatever they want.
They can set you up, they can
bust you, they can break
your fingers, they can
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can t walk, can’t remember, they can
take your child, wall up
your lover. They can do anything
you can’t blame them
from doing. How can you stop
them? Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organisation. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen make a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
it starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.
- Marge Piercy (b. 1936)
a Jewish - American poet, novelist, and social activist.
Check out the website with all the new past photos!
Coming soon. Info about Liverpool gathering maybe this Summer.
From Jordan Namerow:
A few weeks ago, I joined members of the Polish Union of Jewish Students to spend the morning cleaning a Jewish cemetery in Nowy Dror Mazowiewski, a small town right outside of Warsaw. When we arrived, I was shocked to see that the cemetery had been turned into a garbage dump; it was barely recognizable. For several hours, we filled trash bags with candy wrappers, empty vodka bottles, shoes, rusted cans, rubber tires, door knobs, wet T-shirts, glass shards, window frames, and other waste products. Even more disturbing than the trash, was the amount of human bones we found. Due to poor cemetery maintenance and decades of neglect and isolation, many of the tombstones had been upturned and human bones had been unearthed. In accordance with the Jewish tradition, we the collected bones and then dug a new burial site to put them back in the ground.
So many of the Jewish cemeteries in Poland are just like the one in Nowy Dror Mazowiewski. They are in terrible condition and are in dire need of care and restoration. The sad reality is this: there are too many abandoned cemeteries and not enough helping hands.
The Jewish tradition insists that we honor the memory and dignity of our ancestors. In fact, it is considered our first priority to have a Chevra Kadisha (a Jewish burial society) before building a synagogue. Care for the dead is an essential part of Jewish communal life. In keeping with this tradition, EuroJews is planning a cemetery restoration project in Poland during the Summer of 2007.
We are currently trying to plan for next summer's event in Poland, a
cemetery restoration project. This will be a two-week-long Tikkun Olam
program in which participants will work mornings to help clean up and rebuild
one of Poland's many destroyed Jewish cemeteries. In the afternoons, there
will be educational workshops ranging from the pre-War and present day
character of Judaism in Poland, along with Torah study, and workshops about Jewish rituals and ethics. To help with planning, it would be great if I could know approximately how many of you would be interested in such a program. Please e-mail me with the following information as soon as possible:
When it would be best for you to participate - June/July/August
How long you would like to participate - 1 weekend/1 week/2 weeks
Beatrice Richman - beatricerichman(at)hotmail.com
If you would like to be a member of EuroJews please send and e-mail to?Beatrice Richman <beatricerichman(at)hotmail.com>?You will get this on-line newsletter, discounts on events and other?great things!
(happenings, questions, etc.)
EuroJews CD's on-sale now in some of your communities! The cost is about?10 Eu each.?Contact Nathan if you would like more info!
Listen, I'm organizing this International Queer Shabbaton. It's gonna be?a wonderful weekend full of workshops, events, lectures, performances?and loads of nesjomma and food: www.queershabbaton.org. Right now, we?are doing the PR and really need people to spread the word worldwide.?Thanks so much, Gideon Querido van Frank.??
EuroJews Late Bar/Bat Mitzvah Project Have you had a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah? Or are you one of many EuroJews who, for one reason or another, missed out? It is never too late. We are?planning an intensive learning programme leading, if appropriate, to a Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony. Please get in touch if you are interested in this, either as a student or as a teacher. Contact: Nathan
EuroJews Jewish/Moslem Dialogue Project. Fed up with negative and stereotypical journalism, from all sides??Anyone interested in participating in a EuroJews/Moslems interfaith?project should get in touch - let's break down some barriers. Contact:?Nathan
'tent' in manchester
friday 2 june at 7 pm
contact: aaron at a.goldstein(at)liberaljudaism.org or mobile: 07764 192 696
NEXT WEEK
rabbi danny rich in conversation with iman shahid hussain
R20;they all hate us anyway: why bother to talk to muslims?”
wednesday 7 june – 6:30 – 8:00 pm. drinks and canap?s at 6:30 pm
at 21 maple street, w1t 4be
contact: j.thwaites(at)liberaljudaism or 020 7580 1663
'tent' at the montagu centre
friday 9 june at 7 pm
at 21 maple street, london w1t 4be
contact: aaron at a.goldstein(at)liberaljudaism.org or mobile: 07764 192 696
'tent' in birmingham
friday 9 june at 6:30 pm at the friends meeting house, george road, edgbaston b15 1nu
bring a vegetarian dish to share
contact: anna on 07817 207625 or a.gerrard(at)liberaljudaism.org
liberal judaism inter-synagogue quiz 2006
sunday 11 june at 3 for 3:30 pm
at northwood & pinner liberal synagogue, oaklands gate,
northwood ha6 3aa
please get back to me asap if you want to take part
on 0207 631 9826 or m.blake(at)liberaljudaism.org
DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
R16;tentR17; bR17;ivrit
òøá ùáú, ë"à áñéåï
friday 16 june at 7:00 pm
at the montagu centre, 21 maple street, w1t 4be
contact: gili on 020 7631 9823 or shlicha(at)liberaljudaism.org
R16;tentR17; at harrow & wembley
friday 30 june at 7:00 pm
at harrow & Wembley progressive synagogue,
326 preston road, harrow ha3 0qh
contact: aaron at a.goldstein(at)liberaljudaism.org mobile: 07764 192696
to hear about all our events through email contact:
aaron at a.goldstein(at)liberaljudaism.org mobile: 07764 192696
or monique on m.blake(at)liberaljudaism.org
for full listings of ‘tent’ ideas caf? and other endorsed events, please see our website www.liberaljudaism.org.
Monique Blake?Outreach & Projects Administrator?Liberal Judaism
The Montagu Centre?21 Maple Street, London W1T 4BE?T: 020 7631 9826?F: 020 7631 9838?E: m.blake(at)liberaljudaism.org
Visit our website: www.liberaljudaism.org
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