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February 2000 Issue, Volume 1

British Jews Tackle the Big Issues: The Limmud Conference

By Aviya Kushner

NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND -- "You have to see this." A man takes my hand -- this is a Jewish conference with religious content, and he's taking my hand -- and leads me into a room. Here, in a long space, about two hundred people ranging from age 12 to 80 are studying the same text. The room is abuzz with argument, as groups huddled around rectangular tables heatedly debate their points.

In one corner, a grandfatherly man in a black hat and black suit talks with a college student in plaid shirt and combat boots. Both men wave their hands and point to the Talmud on the table between them.

This is the Limmud conference, an annual five-day extravaganza aimed at renewing and enriching Jewish life in Britain. Participants can choose from hundreds of sessions, ranging from a four-day crash course in Yiddish to an intensive on Kohelet (Ecclesiastes). There are text-based courses, focusing on Tanach (bible) and Talmud (Jewish oral law), sessions on spirituality, and a wide range of courses about the arts. Many sessions address tough topics, like faith after the Holocaust, intermarriage, and the religious response to feminism.

Sunday's offerings included "Sexuality and Relationships in Religious Education" and "What Does Halacha (Jewish law) Expect of a Convert?" There was a seminar on Nechama Leibowitz, a session titled "Animal Rights and Judaism," and a course called "Aristotle and The Jewish Question." Learning to leyn (sing the Torah portion) and studying the Jewish attitude toward magic were other possibilities.

"This is a place where people of different beliefs can come and exchange ideas," said Paul Gershlick, a lawyer from London attending his first Limmud conference.. "It's amazing. I think it says a lot that people have come together in this way."

Mark Newman, also a Londoner working in law, was impressed by the level of interest he saw here. Newman ran a stand about Israeli soldiers missing in action, and was pleased with the response. "The Jewish world is so polarized, and here we have the chance to talk to each other and listen to each other," he said.

The conference is not all work and no play. There's a nightly bar, constant coffee opportunities, opening and closing galas, and communal meals. People keep coming back, and some attendees were here in the beginning and never left. Those core attendees tend to volunteer their time, donate money, and bring their children to Limmud, held each year during the week between Christmas and New Year's.

Limmud's first conference was held at Carmel College in 1980, when there were 80 participants. For several years, the conference was held at Oxford, but recently it's been held at the University of Nottingham, which is a two-hour train ride from London. This year, 1800 people attended, most of whom slept on campus for the week.

"It has a different mood each time," said Avril Halle, who has attended several conferences with her husband. "It's the most wonderful, intensive experience where one can learn and refresh oneself." Halle also appreciates that youth do the organizing, but create a high-level conference which appeals to all ages.

Most attendees are progressive Jews, people who would be labeled "Conservative" or "Reform" in the U.S. I saw a few long skirts and a lot of kippot. While the vast majority hailed from Britain, there were some Israelis, Americans, and Soviet Jews here too.

In one session, twenty Jews discussed translations of the siddur. The leader, Rabbi Alexandra Wright, the rabbi of Radlett and Bushey Reform Synagogue and co-chair of the Assembly of Rabbis, outlined the approaches of several 1990s translations. She discussed the he/she debate when referring to God, and also noted that some consider "my Lord" an affirmation of the male power structure.

In the discussion, a young man said he thinks English is the problem -- not Hebrew. He noted that unlike French, English has no gender-neutral pronoun.

The girl next to him said there will always be something in the liturgy which a member of the congregation can't relate to. If we pray to a "God who rescues," she said, a Holocaust survivor may object. But that same survivor might identify with "God of our fathers." In this girl's view, no change will ever suffice for everyone.

In another session, the views of Rabbi Yitz Greenberg on faith after the Holocaust were detailed and debated. "Because the faith is broken, we must respect how every person affirms the covenant,"said session leader David Levin-Kruss, the community director at Stanmore and Cannons Park Synagogue. "At the board meeting of the UJA, that is where you can find God, because that is where the covenant is alive," Levin-Kruss said. "God is so well-hidden that we have to look for him in odd places. "

Levin-Kruss also urged the group to consider the shocking renewal of Jewish life after World War II. "After the Holocaust, one might expect Jews to leave Judaism en masse. But that didn't happen!"

"The displaced persons camp birth rate was higher than at any time in history," Levin-Kruss continued. "People wanted to recreate their lives."

"The miracle of modern times is that instead of leaving the covenant, Jews have reaffirmed it," he added, as hands shot up to discuss the point.

Meanwhile, Clive Lawton, a popular Jewish educator in England and a director of Limmud, spoke to a packed auditorium about the calendar and a Jewish perspective on the millenium. He pointed out that New Year's means nothing to Jews, and suggested that Jews think about that as they make millenium plans.

"When you're standing caught between the fireworks and the candles, there's an issue there, and you should at least feel the tension. One -- the tension of taming time, and two -- the tension of time as something beyond us."

What Limmud does is articulate the tensions of a Jew in the secular world, and it provides a forum to discuss those tensions. As the rest of Britain prepared to usher 2000 in with a huge party, this conference gave those who planned to choose shabbat dinner over the clubs some strength and perspective. Yet it also let the clubgoers feel that they, too, have an equal role in today's Judaism and that both fireworks and candles deserve to be discussed.

For more information about Limmud, see www.limmud.org. To learn about Israeli POWs, check out www.mia.org.il

Aviya Kushner is a poet and journalist. She is the Contributing Editor in Poetry for BarnesandNoble.com., and her coverage of the arts appears worldwide. She can be reached at AviyaK@aol.com.