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Some time ago, I was listening religiously to the sound of my shoes tapping on the white tiles of MAM, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
Inside, a bench faced the imposing paintings by Chaim Soutine on which were painted carcasses of meat hanging from a butcher’s hook.

In this first session, Rabbi Dr Charles Middleburgh looks at the life and achievements of renowned Liberal Jewish leader Rabbi John Rayner. Rabbi Dr Charles H Middleburgh has lectured at Leo Baeck College since 1984. His research interests are focused on Liturgy, Animal Iconography in illuminated medieval […]

For the great rationalist Maimonides, evil does not really exist – in fact, it is by definition non-existence, the absence of good and the absence of being. The theosophical kabbalah, which arose in the generations after Maimonides, took a radically different path in understanding the nature of evil. Since all being flows from the divine, [...]

The Book of Samuel is one of the masterpieces of world literature. While the overall story can be read and appreciated in translation, the full richness and subtleties of the narrative deserve spending time with the Hebrew text.

Marriages between humans and demons are not unheard of in Jewish tradition. From Queen Sheba in Midrash to the Ashkenazi medieval Mayse vom Worms, to the modern-day British Neil Gaiman’s Lucifer. Jews have always asked themselves if indeed they married the devil’s spawn, or is it all just in their heads?

Our rabbinic ordination took place on Sunday across four synagogues and three countries in the College’s first ever international, live broadcast ceremony. Click here to see the film of our first international ordination. Please share the link with your family and friends.

Ahead of the opening of the British Library’s new exhibition, Hebrew Manuscripts: Journeys of the Written Word, Jewish Renaissance’s Arts Editor Judi Herman explored it via a virtual private view. There she met Cassy Sachar, librarian at Leo Baeck College