This blog post comes from Rabbi Willy Wolff, written in 2006 for ‘Written All Over Our History – A Yom Limmud for Ester Gluck’ exploring Jewish responsibility towards refugees. One commandment in the Torah seems uncannily to have been almost written with Ester in mind. For she observed it bechol levavah, with all her great […]
This is a Yom Kippur sermon, written and delivered by Rabbi Margaret Jacobi, rabbi of Birmingham Progressive Synagogue. 23 September 2015/10 Tishri 5776. The first Yom Kippur morning sermon I gave in this Synagogue was about the duty to protest. I quoted the words of our Haftarah: ‘Cry aloud, do not hold back; let your voice […]
This is a Rosh Hashanah sermon, written and delivered by Rabbi Sharon Brous, founding rabbi of IKAR. Delivered 14 September 2015/1 Tishri 5776. Read the original posting of this sermon here and find out more about IKAR here. Four facts: In the last 4½ years, the war in Syria has killed about 240,000 people, including 20,000 children. 6 […]
This is a Rosh Hashanah sermon, written and delivered by Rabbi Jeremy Gordon, rabbi of New London Synagogue. Delivered 14 September 2015/1 Tishri 5776. Read the original posting of this sermon and more sermons by Rabbi Gordon here. I gave a sermon earlier this year. It was after the death of one of my heroes, Sir Nicholas […]
This was a speech delivered by Souleymane of the Freed Voices group to Jewish community members who gathered at the JW3 centre on October 7 ’15 to determine how best to respond to the ongoing refugee crisis. It was first featured on Detention Action page and can be read here. Good evening ladies and gentlemen. My […]
Sam Grant is Campaigns and Programme Manager for Rene Cassin, the Jewish voice for human rights. What is the issue? This year has seen the greatest refugee crisis since the Second World War. Amid heated debate about the UK’s response, the shameful truth is that Britain is the only country in Europe where asylum-seekers are […]
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah is the rabbi of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue. She delivered this sermon on Shabbat Lech L’cha/Saturday 24 October 2015. Over the past four years, the news has been dominated by the refugee crisis; in particular, by the millions of refugees fleeing from the conflict between the extremist warriors of so-called […]
Richard Verber is Campaigns Manager for World Jewish Relief, the UK Jewish community’s international humanitarian agency. In the evening of September 2 pictures started to circulate round the world of one boy: Alan Kurdi. His image would grace the front cover of nearly every British newspaper the next day. Three years old, from Syria, he died […]
This is a Yom Kippur sermon, written and delivered by Rabbi Lea Mühlstein, rabbi at Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue. 23 September 2015/10 Tishri 5776. A couple of days ago, Rabbi Andrew handed me a little book entitled “You and the Refugee.” It is a Penguin Special by Norman Angell and was first published in […]
Nic Schlagman is the Community Projects Manager at West London Synagogue and recently visited The Jungle in Calais with a number of volunteers from Marom. It is not easy to find the correct words to describe our recent visit to the refugee camp in Calais. Despite now numerous conversations with friends and colleagues the right […]