Western perceptions of biblical events from the Renaissance to the present day by Adam Green

Adam’s talk is about two of his greatest passions – art and biblical criticism – concentrating on the role of fine art (including sculpture), literature and cinema upon our perceptions of Bible texts and personalities.

If you missed the talk you can view the recording here.

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Jackie Briggs  is the proud parent of two children who are lesbian and gay.  Both are now in their 30’s but about 20 years ago she began working as a volunteer for Families Together London which supports parents who are going through difficult times when they discover their child/ren comes out as LGBT.  She hopes that her talk, which covers many aspects of being such a parent, is informative, enlightening and uplifting.

If you missed this event, you can view the recording here.

On Sunday, Joan Noble interviewed Anne Shooter.

If you missed the event, you can view the recording here.

Anne Shooter had been a journalist at the Daily Mail for almost 20 years when she decided to follow her passion for cooking and train to be a chef at Leith’s School of Food and Wine at the age of 40. Since then she has had two cookery books published, Sesame & Spice – a book of Jewish baking – and Cherish, a collection of Jewish recipes from family, friends and communities all over the world.

Her recipes span from traditional Jewish food, often with its roots in Eastern Europe, to more modern creations, using spices and ingredients more in line with those used in Israel and other parts of the Middle East. All of her dishes are quick, simple and foolproof: As a working wife and mum she has no interest in food that needs hard-to-find ingredients or takes too long to prepare!

While cooking remains a huge passion and a third book is in the offing, Anne is a senior executive in the Mail and Metro newspaper group advertising team. She lives in north London with her husband Daniel, a solicitor, two teenage daughters, Charlotte and Jessica and large labradoodle, Rufus.

Back by popular demand, Michael Bennett, Boris’s son, continued his entertaining tales of the life and times of his late father.

If you missed this event you can view the recording here.

On Sunday, Alicia Merrett gave a presentation on this amazing art form.

If you missed the event you can view the recording here.

The word ‘quilt’ tends to evoke images of bed covers. That is the purpose for which quilts have traditionally been made. However, from the 1960s onwards a strong movement developed, first in the US, and then in the UK and throughout the world, of Art Quilts which are designed to hang on the wall – textile ‘paintings’ where the artwork is layered and stitched.

Alicia Merrett has been an art quilter for over 20 years and her work has been, and is, exhibited in the UK, Europe, USA, Australia, Japan, China, Taiwan, South Korea, Israel. She is known for her use of strong colour; textile maps are one of her best known series. Currently she is creating digital designs which are then printed on fabric and stitched.

On Thursday evening, Rabbi Gilad Kariv, the first Reform Rabbi to become a member of the Knesset, spoke to us live from Israel on the following subject:

‘From Head of the IMPJ Movement to the only Reform Rabbi in the Israeli Knesset: How does one reconcile the loss of life in the recent fighting with Hamas, with Israel’s future in the Abraham Accords?’

Rabbi Gilad, as Head of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism in Israel, has grown the number of communities to more than 45. He has now turned in another direction as MK for the Labour Party.

If you missed this event you can view the recording here.

On Tuesday, Steve Levinson interviewed Her Honour Dawn Freedman

Dawn was a Circuit Judge who sat for many years at Harrow Crown Court.   Dawn was the youngest person to be appointed to the position of Stipendiary Magistrate (now called a District Judge) and sat at South West London Magistrates’ Court.  At the request of the late Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Dawn and the late Judge Myrella Cohen QC drafted a pre-nuptial agreement to be signed by couples agreeing to behave in accordance with Jewish Law if they divorced.  Dawn and Myrella played a part in the drafting of the Divorce (Religious Marriages) Act 2002 giving judges the power to postpone decrees absolute until the parties had complied with their religious obligations.  Dawn is a former Trustee of Jewish Women’s Aid. 

If you missed this event you can view the recording here.

On Sunday we heard the story behind The Story and what it takes to self-publish a book for the first time.

After 30 years of sitting high up on a shelf, Antonia dusted off the manuscript of her children’s book and Lockdown created the opportunity to brush up the story, sort out the illustrations – done by Daniel T Sullivan – and get it published. Also, the audiobook was recorded at home and, although Antonia narrated the story and husband Howard, (man of many voices) portrayed the amusing characters, it’s not quite as simple as it sounds.

If you missed this event you can view the recording here

On Tuesday, Lance Forman talked about the history of Smoked Salmon in the UK and the role played by his company, H. Forman & Son.

If you missed this event you can view the recording here.

On Tuesday, Hadley Freeman was interviewed by Steve Levinson.

If you missed the event you can view the recording here.

‘A near perfect study of Jewish identity…in the 20th century. If there is a better book about the anguish of Jewish survival I have yet to read it.‘ – The Daily Telegraph

‘House of Glass is extraordinary. It reads like a mystery and a memoir and a gripping history of the last century … Freeman doesn’t hide from the grey spaces people inhabit during wartime, or shy away from drawing the terrifying parallels to today’s iterations of those ancient hatreds. It’s a brave and wonderful book’ – Nathan Englander

Hadley Freeman has been a staff writer at The Guardian newspaper since 2000. ‘House of Glass’  is her fourth book.

After her grandmother died, Hadley Freeman travelled to her apartment to try and make sense of a woman she’d never really known. Sala Glass was a European expat in America – defiantly clinging to her French influences, famously reserved, fashionable to the end – yet to Hadley much of her life remained a mystery. Sala’s experience of surviving one of the most tumultuous periods in modern history was never spoken about.
When Hadley found a shoebox filled with her grandmother’s treasured belongings, it started a decade-long quest to find out their haunting significance and to dig deep into the extraordinary lives of Sala and her three brothers. The search takes Hadley from Picasso’s archives in Paris to a secret room in a farmhouse in Auvergne to Long Island and to Auschwitz.

A moving memoir following the Glass siblings throughout the course of the twentieth-century as they each make their own bid for survival, House of Glass explores assimilation, identity and home – issues that are deeply relevant today.