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The Chief Rabbi of CanterburyMonday, December 24, 2012 by Simon Gordon | Jewish Ideas Daily » Daily Features
With his public defense of religion, the outgoing Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, has fulfilled an important role within British society—just not the one he was appointed to perform.
Editors' Picks
Paradise Regained? D. G. Myers, Commonplace Blog. Francesca Segal's latest novel The Innocents, a reworking of Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence for Jewish north-west London, substitutes tragedy for repentance and redemption.
On the Virtue of Belief without Practice Alan Brill, Book of Doctrines and Opinions. Herbert Loewe argued that it was better for lax Jews to believe one thing and do another than remake Jewish doctrine in their own image.
All About the Benjamins Brían Hanrahan, Los Angeles Review of Books. Sustained financially by his friend Gershom Scholem for much of his life, the revolutionary Marxist Walter Benjamin has posthumously become a commercial success.
Paralympic Pioneer Blair Thornburgh, Forward. A refugee to England from Nazi Germany, Dr. Ludwig Guttmann’s groundbreaking treatments for traumatic paraplegia provided the platform for what has become the Paralympics.
How London’s Jews Measure Up Rachel Kolsky, Jewish Chronicle. In 1908, when London hosted its first Olympic Games, the city had 70 synagogues. Today it boasts 170, but one is still prompted to ask: Has the community come full circle?
Observant at the Olympics Miriam Shaviv, Times of Israel. There are under a dozen Jewish chaplains of all denominations at the international games this summer. “Perhaps we as rabbis need to see if we can get involved in sports chaplaincy.”
'Round Olympic Village Ivor Davis, Jewish Chronicle. “We slept in our back-garden bomb shelter . . . we were weaned on ration books, powdered eggs, and cod-liver oil”: Not long ago, now-chic East London was a hub of immigrant Jewish life.