Leo Baeck College

The message of Parashat Pinchas is that when we appear to be confronted only with violent options, always to ask: Isn’t there anything else? If we follow the example of Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah, there certainly is.

Read this week's d'var Torah:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

“You’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” Christopher Robin reassures Winnie the Pooh at the beginning of Pooh’s Grand Adventure, but should we accept advice from talking animals?

Read this week's d'var Torah on parashat Balak:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

Class of 2025 – Rabbi Andrea Steuer Zago Kulikovsky and Rabbi Dr Hannah Marije Altorf with Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris, Principal of LBC, and Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh, Dean & Director of Jewish Studies, pictured at the Leo Baeck College Ordination service on Sunday 6th July 2025 at FRS.

This week we celebrate the ordination of two incredible new rabbis from Leo Baeck College. First, Elliott speaks to Erev Rav Andrea Kulikovsky @deakuli.bsky.social about the theology of the cloud.

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/3AXV...
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

#judaism

Judaism deals with death in a very honest way, and Chukkat is our annual moment to reflect upon how we deal with it.

Read this week's d'var Torah by LBC rabbinical student - and soon to be rabbi - Andrea Kulikovsky on our website:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

#ShabbatShalom #RabbiSchool #dvartorah

Parashat Korach I had wanted to write my last d’var as a student at Leo Baeck College on parashat Korach, because I have written my dissertation on machloket, on disagreement.

Read this week's d'var Torah on parashat Korach by Dr. Hannah Marije Altorf, LBC rabbinical student on our website: lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

Last week I was walking in the beautiful forest around Vallendar, Germany, when I passed a well. The sign above it told the story of its origin. When a bishop had cursed God after an unsuccessful hunting trip, he and his horse disappeared in a crack in the earth...
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

Stop. Look. Listen. Think.
“SHOPLIFTING IN PROGRESS”
Of course, that is not what was written on the hoarding on the High Street. It is what my young eyes first read, until I looked again and realised it actually said “Shopfitting”

This week's d'var Torah by Rabbi Nicola Feuchtwang: bit.ly/4lg2wPR

Witnessing again the ageing men of the Torah – Aaron, Moses and a very masculine God – dominating the text and silencing the lone woman should make us squirm.

Read this week's d'var Torah by Rabbi Richard Jacobi: lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

#ShabbatShalom #RabbiSchool #torahportion #dvartorah

In Naso we hear how the chieftains of Israel came to Moses on the day that he finished the portable temple in the desert... Each brought an extremely useful offering...

Read this week's d'var Torah by Rabbi Mark Goldsmith on our website:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

This week we enter the Book of Numbers – the only one of the Five Books of Moses, when you stop to think about it, which has a plain sense English name.

Read this week's d'var Torah by LBC rabbinic student Richard Allen Greene on our website:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

The lighting of Shabbat candles on Friday night is a special time of the week; it is a moment to slow down, whether alone or with friends or family, and to step outside weekday time.

Read this week's d'var Torah on Behar-Bechukotai by LBC rabbinical student Tim Motz:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

LBC students studying Second Temple Texts and Early Judaism attended the 2025 Ethel M. Wood Lecture, given by Professor Judith Buchanan (Oxford) on ‘Courting and thwarting the “ill word”: the figure of Judith in film, art and literature’, held at King's College, London on Monday 19 May.

Leo Baeck College is delighted by the news of the successful outcomes from The Movement for Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism EGMs this morning. We look forward to working with their leadership as they work towards creating the single Movement for Progressive Judaism. Mazel tov!

In my experience meaningful change does not come about through simply learning about people; it comes from intimate, personal relationships with individuals who hold different narratives from our own.

Read Rabbi David-Yehuda Stern's d'var Torah on parashat Emor:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

LBC 2025 Spring / Summer Appeal: Donate today! | Leo Baeck College Call us+44 (0) 20 8349 5600

In the coming week, we’ll be sharing a recording of the conversation between Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick and Professor Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris.

These achievements have only been possible through the generosity of our supporters. Please consider donating today: lbc.ac.uk/lbc-25-appea...

2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the ordination of UK's first woman rabbi – Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick. To celebrate this groundbreaking milestone, we brought ... Roundtable discussion celebrating 50 years of women rabbis in the UK | Leo Baeck College

To celebrate this groundbreaking milestone, we also brought together Rabbis Dr Jackie Tabick, Alexandra Wright, Dr Helen Freeman, Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris, Rebecca Birk, Debbie Young-Somers & Deborah Blausten to reflect on their experiences. Watch the video here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnNv...

Thank you to all that joined us to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first woman rabbi, Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick’s, ordination. This week, Rabbi Dr Tabick and Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris sat down to discuss their experiences as women rabbis.

Find out more: lbc.ac.uk/lbc-25-appeal/

This week’s parashah takes its name from the fourteenth word in it (is this a record?) – k’doshim – which precedes the verb tih’yu, so, how might we best translate the phrase K’doshim tih’yu?

Read this week's d'var Torah on Acharei Mot–K’doshim by Rabbi Richard Jacobi:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

There’s just over a week left to sign up to our FREE online event, celebrating 50 years of women in the UK rabbinate, on 14 May 2025.

For more information on the event and to donate, please visit: lbc.ac.uk/lbc-25-appeal/

“We traversed a frontier and didn’t really know what the territory before us would look like. Now I look back and see the seventy faces of women who are confident and proud rabbis and teachers in Israel.” – Rabbi Alexandra Wright, ordained by LBC in 1986

Find out more: lbc.ac.uk/rabbi-alexan...

Jews having a lot to say is not so much a stereotype as a truism, just as much as the old adage “two Jews, three opinions” is. This week’s Torah portion perhaps speaks to that more than any other, although not necessarily explicitly.

Read more by LBC student Emily Carp:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

This week, we commemorate Israel’s National Days, marking important moments in the Israeli-Jewish calendar, encompassing Yom HaZikaron – the Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terror – and Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.

This year marks some grim anniversaries: on Jan 27th 1945 the Auschwitz-Birkenau site was captured by the advancing Soviet army, and on April 15th 1945, the British army liberated the camp at Bergen-Belsen.

Read Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh's reflections on Yom Hashoah:
lbc.ac.uk/d-var-torah/...

Our Spring 2025/Pesach Newsletter is out! Catch up on all the goings on at LBC since Chanukah - if you're not on our mailing list you can find our newsletter here:
mailchi.mp/lbc.ac.uk/ne...

If you'd like to join our mailing list, click this link: eepurl.com/idFXIL

Mazal tov to LBC faculty member Dr Sandra Jacobs who has edited a new collection of essays (written by colleagues) on aspects of ancient law:

(de Gruyter; BZAW 504)
The Dynamics of Early Judaean Law: Studies in the
Diversity of Ancient Social and Communal Legislation
doi.org/10.1515/9783...

Celebrating 50 years of women rabbis in the UK | Leo Baeck College Call us+44 (0) 20 8349 5600

Help us celebrate this foundational milestone by raising £50,000 and support the next generation of inspirational Progressive Jewish leaders. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous supporter for every £4 you donate they’ll add an extra £1.
Please visit: lbc.ac.uk/lbc-25-appeal/

Celebrating 50 years of women rabbis in the UK | Leo Baeck College Call us+44 (0) 20 8349 5600

Join us online on 14th May 2025 as we celebrate this extraordinary event with Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick in conversation with Rabbi Professor Deborah Kahn-Harris. You can sign up for FREE here: lbc.ac.uk/lbc-25-appeal/

2025 marks 50 years since UK’s first woman rabbi, Rabbi Dr Jackie Tabick, was ordained at LBC. LBC has since ordained more than 70 women rabbis. To mark this milestone, we have curated an archive of inspiring stories that highlight some of our alumnae’s remarkable journeys. lbc.ac.uk/lbc-25-appeal/

Rabbi Sybil Sheridan is part of the first generation of theUK's women rabbis. In this blog, she reflects on the evolving role of women in the Progressive Jewish world since her own ordination at Leo Baeck College in 1981: lbc.ac.uk/rabbi-sybil-...