"A son is gold, a daughter trouble": Sephardi birth and marriage customs ☆ ★

Hilary Pomeroy 

Room 6

A locked padlock, open drawers, amuletic herbs, an iron sword. These appurtenances all play their part in the varied customs which, together with popular sayings associated with birth and marriage, reveal the social, economic and cultural reality of life in the Jewish communities of Morocco and the Ottoman Empire.

Are we learning anything from the COVID-19 pandemic? ☆ ★

Julia Neuberger 

Room 1

Julia Neuberger will draw on her wide experience, including currently chairing two major NHS hospital Trusts and being a crossbench peer, to explore some of the social and political implications of COVID-19, and considering some lessons being learned.

Politics in a post-truth era: thinking through difficult times ☆ ★

Ilan Baron 

Room 4

Asking questions is central to the Jewish tradition. But what about the answers? This session is inspired by the thought of Hannah Arendt, explores the phenomena of post-truth politics. What is post-truth politics? How is it unique, if at all? Why does it matter? And what types of knowledge count more than others and why?

That blackbird woke me up ☆ ★

Jonathan Wittenberg 

Room 3

How nature sustains us under lockdown; why so many of us find it so inspiring and such balm for the soul. What we need to give back and why, when times are better, we don't want to return to the status quo ante. With Torah, mysticism, poetry and pictures.

The changing dynamics of ultra-Orthodoxy in world Jewry ☆ ★

David Newman 

Room 2

During the past four decades the Haredi community has grown exponentially in Israel and the Diaspora. They have become a powerful political and social force while at the same time sinking into a cycle of poverty. What are the challenges facing this community as they seek to maintain hard core traditions in the face of technology and modernity?

Fakes, frauds, and fanatics: the seamy side of biblical archaeology ☆ ★

Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz 

Room 5

Faith is bound up with the question of biblical fakes and forgeries. We’ll look at three examples of fake archaeological artefacts, from potential biblical manuscripts to a tiny ivory pomegranate, and see how religious faith, faith in science, and faith in our own expertise have an impact on our acceptance and rejection of doubtful artefacts.

The Limmud Bar ☆ ★

The Bar