Red 7
Throw out the rules when Billy Jonas hits the stage! It’s a musical conversation, a sonic celebration, a joyful gathering of old and young, because at a Billy Jonas show, the ensemble is everyone. With homemade "re-percussion" instruments, voice, and guitar, audience participation is the name of the game. Come sing along, move along, and smile!
Green 25 - Nursery
How progressive do you have to be to change the prayerbook and the prayers within it? What about the Torah?! Let’s avoid answering the question directly (at least to start with) by exploring some illuminating examples of deliberate misquotes and deviations from the ‘proper’ Torah text that we have in our liturgy.
Red 9
Both Picasso and Miro painted crying heads as a reaction to the horrors of war. By looking at these artworks, and other artistic depictions of crying, we will explore the grief and trauma in the tear-soaked text of the Book of Lamentations. And how this ancient Biblical text still cries out in pain and resonates with our national sufferings today.
Orange 11
During the Jewish Renaissance tour of Mumbai and Kerala, Sybil discovered that to talk of the Jews of India is a misnomer. There are not one, but four maybe even five different Jewish communities with distinctive origins and individual stories that involve spices and shipwrecks; drug trafficking and diplomacy.
Red 2
Welcoming all self-identifying Jews of Colour, Mizrachim, Sephardim and anyone else who identifies as a person of colour. This is intended to be a space which builds community, provides solidarity, and seeks to recognise the challenge of being a minority within a minority.
Blue 32 - Wellbeing hub
Gently let go of the day with prayer, song and meditation. Each evening we’ll prepare our minds and souls for sweet dreams. Bring readings, poetry or songs you’d like to share. No prior knowledge needed. Hebrew will be translated and transliterated.
Red 3
In the Kovno Ghetto, R. Ephraim Oshry wrote responsa for Jews attempting to navigate the shoah with fidelity to Torah. We will read moving stories of Jews shaking lulav in the ghetto, and making brachot as they prepared to die. Can these rulings tell us anything about Judaism outside of this nightmare scenario? Did halachah really have the answers?
Yellow 21
How would you go about rethinking an antisemitic legend? Explore the Wandering Jew exhibition on display at Festival and then come to this session to learn about critical approaches to translation, curation and reappropriation. This session will include time for empowered creative reflection and reclamation through collage and blackout poetry.
Yellow 24
Creative interactive session to scribble, act out, be absurd, try be funny. We will use alternative creative stimuli such as visualisation, mind map and word play. We will write and then improvise sketch scenes, dialogue and characters. Facilitated by professional actor Elliott Leigh.
Red 5
The Post Office Scandal has dominated the news since the drama Alan Bates v Post Office. Paul Harris, solicitor for some of the postmasters, tells the story of how lives were ruined by corporate officials trying to save the Post Office brand . He has spoken at a number of Jewish communities about this story, but why has it generated so much interest?
Orange 10
How is it that Kitniyot (Legumes) which are clearly permitted for consumption on Pesach according to the Talmud, ended up being proscribed by Ashkenazi Jews from the 13th century onwards? What does this tell us about the development of Jewish Law and custom that is still relevant today.
Red 4
This talk will look at the results of research into people’s attitudes towards the survival of Yiddish in the UK, which formed the dissertation for an MA in Applied Linguistics at London University.
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