Author: Glen Berd

“Don’t cry and don’t rage. Understand”: Baruch Spinoza  By Peter Beyfus   Philosophers,  by their challenging natures,  are likely to cause disturbance among academics and religious authorities, and that was certainly the case with Baruch Spinoza, a man who was controversial, ruffled more than a few feathers, and took inspiration from earlier eminent thinkers like Plato, Aristotle,  Maimonides, Thomas Hobbs and René Descartes,  to mention some of the luminaries who were seminal in shaping his approach to many branches of philosophy: ethics, metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, philosophy of mind and philosophy of science.  His legacy would, in turn,  have a profound influence on Immanuel Kant, Leibniz, Hegel, Nietzsche, Marx and Einstein.   Spinoza was of Sephardi origin, whose family were Portuguese Marrano, and who fled to the more tolerant  Dutch Republic. Baruch  Spinoza  was born in Amsterdam in 1632. He would have received a traditional Jewish education, learning Hebrew, studying Torah and Talmud but not to rabbinic standards. He left school around seventeen, to help...

Seaside stories for Chizuk by Rebbetzen Anna Bergson    My husband and I have had the pleasure of leading the St Anne's Hebrew Congregation for close to almost eight years now! Whenever I meet people and tell them I'm the Rebbezten of St Anne's I am met with perplexed and surprised faces - they can't believe there is still a sizable community here (which there is bh) and how a frum family could find it so fulfilling tending to such a far out and remote kehilla. I always say I'm going to write a book about it one day because not only are our 'regulars' the most special and inspiring neshamas but we seem to attract the most curious strangers who seem to invariably wash up on the shore! Take for example last night - my husband received an email from a Chabad House in Canada. A Canadian couple have reached the finals of an International Ballroom Dancing Competition - they are Shomer Shabbos/yomtov and the...

Three boys who fled Nazi Europe on Kindertransport and found refuge at a Lancashire school Many were told they were 'going on an adventure', expecting a short term trip. The truth was far more horrifying by Rachel Smith Court reporter of Lancashire Life Gerd Haag fled Nazi Europe on Kindertransport and found safety at Rossall School in Lancashire As the threat of war hung over Europe in the late 1930s, three children boarded the Kindertransport, looking for safety in England. The scheme saw unaccompanied Jewish children leave behind their parents - and everything they knew - to flee the peril they faced in Germany, Austria and Czeckoslovakia. Many were told they were 'going on an adventure', expecting a short term trip. The truth was far more horrifying. They were being saved from the holocaust which took the lives of the families they left behind. Between 1938 and 1939, around 10,000 children came to Britain through the unaccompanied minors scheme. Jewish pupils Gerd (Geoffrey) Haag, Robert Augenfeld...

Ronnie Scott (1927-1996) “All That Jazz” by Peter Beyfus During my younger days, in the sixties, I used to enjoy listening to jazz, both traditional and modern. I was lucky enough to be taken by my boss, when I worked in London, to Ronnie Scott’s club in Firth Street, Soho. The club was a magnet for emerging British musical talent. From its humble beginnings, in 1959, in a basement in Gerrard Street, to becoming world famous for its artistes and venue for celebrity, the success of the club says a great deal about Scott’s entrepreneurial ability and his virtuosity on saxophone. Ronnie Scott, born Ronald Schatt, was of mixed Ashkenazi and Sephardi origin; his father, Joseph, was of Russian descent, while his mother’s family were members of the Portuguese synagogue, close to Bevis Marks. His father left the family when Ronnie was four. He was brought up by his mother and grandmother. His mother Sylvia remarried, and it was Ronnie’s stepfather, Solomon Berger, who recognised his musical ability and gave him his first tenor saxophone. By...