Back to the Ganges - A trip to India

I have just returned from a wonderful trip to India. For the past 45 years I have been working in the Oriental rug trade importing Oriental rugs from many countries including India, China, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and nearer to home - Belgium.

I have been privileged to be able to visit all of these countries and see a lot of the world during my career.

Having started my travels to India back in the seventies, when things were very different compared with the India of today, I really had no intention of going back. I had more or less retired in 2008 and thought that I had enough of India, so much so that my wife Brenda, who always wanted to go, went with a friend a few years ago because I said I wouldn't go.

However, we were having lunch with friends one Sunday last year and they said they were planning a trip to India. They started asking me all about it and I was trying to give them a few pointers. They were going to the main tourist places which people go to on their first trip known as the Golden Triangle which means Delhi, Agra and Jaipur.

They added that they wanted to go to Varanasi which is the most holy city in India. People come to Varanasi aer travelling hundreds of miles to bring their dead to the side of the Ganges for cremation in Funeral Pyres. It is quite something to see, a very emotional experience. Their wanting to go there triggered a spark.

Varanasi is also the place where the rugs I imported were made but really what made me think about going back was the fact that my company had help build a girls’ school back in 1997 which I had never seen. The rugs are made in villages on farms about 100 miles from Varanasi. There were boys’ schools in the villages but no schools for girls. The girls had to travel into Varanasi every day - that meant two hours each way by bus every day. Our manufacturer had a dream about building a school for the girls and we said we would help, along with John Lewis who was our biggest customer at the time.

The school was opened in l997 in a village called Ghoshia with 350 girls attending on that first day. The school has since expanded and now 1000 girls attend.

Well, I did go back, and it was one of the best experiences I have ever had. They made me, my wife Brenda, and our friends so welcome. We were met by the head teacher and 1000 pupils - something difficult to describe. They showered us with flowers and garlands, danced for us and sang. We were shown around the school and met nearly all the staff and all the children. It was a day I shall remember for the rest of my life. I was proud that my company had been involved in the making of this wonderful school which I am sure will achieve much more in the future.
By the way, besides going to Varanasi we did visit many other places. India is a vibrant country full of colour and so many other things that I wouldn't know where to start

If you get the chance go, you will not be disappointed.

World union for progressive Judaism convention in Jerusalem

My son, Richard, and I were delegates at the W.U.P.J. 38th International Convention, 17 – 20 May in Jerusalem. I was the oldest and the only one to have attended its Sixth Conference, 1949 in London. Then there were 100 delegates from 13 countries; now over 400 Delegates came together from 32 countries. Founded by Lily Montagu in London in 1926, WUPJ is now the largest Jewish religious movement world-wide.

By common consent it was the best convention ever. Highlights were a service at the side of the Kotel reserved for egalitarian services, with women carrying the Sefer Torah; a Shabbat Eve celebration at the site of the former Railway Station, now a cultural centre, where the eight Reform congregations around Jerusalem came together in song and dance with a thousand participants; and the Shabbat morning service on the top of Bet-Shmuel, the wonderful Reform Centre overlooking the Old City. Like our Shabbat Resouled Service with music, processions, singing and dancing and seven Aliyot, with much enthusiasm it lasted two and a half hours!

Among the main speakers and workshop leaders were Nathan Sharansky (Head of the Jewish Agency), the daughter of Shimon Perez (who recited Kaddish at his funeral), Danny Fessler (Director of the Leo Baeck Educa$on Centre in Haifa) and Gilad Kariv, CEO of the Israel Reform Movement, well-known to us.

While at the 1949 Conference, so soon aer the Shoah, the mood was sober, serious and contemplative; the mood in 2017 was euphoric, confident and optimistic.

So we sang Chasack, Chasack venitchasek at the end of Leviticus with great conviction: “We are strong and will strengthen one another!”.

Harry Jacobi

Ruach Teacher Required

Teacher Required for Ruach - Southgate Progressive Synagogue Religion School

We are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic and dynamic Religion School teacher to teach Jewish Studies, starting in September 2017.
We are a friendly, caring, Liberal Jewish community with an ethos of inclusion and equal opportunities for all. Ruach meets on Saturday mornings during school term-times.

Children’s safety and welfare is of paramount importance to us and you will require a full Disclosure and Barring Service Check.

For an application form, please apply in confidence to our Honorary Secretary Mrs Jane Greenfield (secretary@sps.uk.com). To arrange a visit or to discuss the job in more detail, please contact the Head Teacher, Gwendolen Burton: Headteacher@sps.uk.com.

Words From Our Religious Activities Committee

Now Shavuot is over, and the Pet Service is done (a massive thank you to Emma Marsh for playing the guitar and keeping me in tune), we are now truly in the summer run up to the High Holy Days. Even this Gate is on its holiday and comes back to you in September. This does not mean that services at SPS cease. We carry on with our Shabbat services even though we allow our Rabbi a holiday!
Without our dedicated layreaders, many of them from RAC, SPS would need to pay visiting Rabbis so please come along and support our friends from 28th July to 12th August as I thank Barry Mathiason, Jonathon Clark, Julian Sampson, Phil Zeligman, Bob Dulin, Barbara Mar$n, and Rabbi Michael Standfield and Rabbi Harry Jacobi.
I know I thanked everyone in the AGM booklet for the work RAC put into making sure SPS’s variety of services is the envy of the LJ community. But for those that don’t know I must thank them again as I am now standing down as Chair of the committee. This is due to a new job and the clash of interests it presents. So my thanks to Jonathon Clark, Max Donen (new member), Bob Dulin, Jane Greenfield, Michael Henriques, Rabbi Keren, Jill Newton, Pearl Phillips, Michele Raab, Julian Sampson, Carol Standfield and Phil Zeligman. The first meeting after the AGM will be electing the new officers and I know they will do a sterling job.
Don’t forget to come to shul on 14th July as Shabbat Resouled takeover the music at SPS and deliver a fantastic experience. See you there!
Have a fantastic summer, take a break from the work-life-cycle but remember SPS is here for your spiritual battery refresh too.