Category: Rabbis blog

Today Thursday July 24 I was walking in St Anne’s to The local Aldi. As I approached the entrance I passed by a man who was also about to enter the shop. He made eye contact with me and then introduced himself: “Hello I am from the local area and I understand you are Jewish”.   Well yes I was wearing my kippah and my tzitzit were hanging at the sides!   He then continued “I just want to tell you that whilst I am critical of the Israeli government I am not antisemitic “   He ended “ I am fully supportive of the Palestinian people”.   I asked him if what he meant by “fully supportive” included Hamas continuing to rule in Gaza. To his credit he said no.   I explained that Israel are doing their very best to destroy Hamas and this involves separating the Palestinian people from Hamas. This was of course weakening Hamas rule over the people - a key strategy in the regime’s survival - and...

By Rabbi Danny Bergson The president of the USA Donald Trump just made a statement after the successful operation to strike and destroy Iranian nuclear capability. The statement was unequivocal and displayed his moral clarity, strength and courage to stand up against pure evil and have the faith that Good will prevail. He ended his statement with the words “And I want to just thank everybody. And, in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.” It is not unusual for presidents of America to invoke God but remarkable that he spoke about Love of God. Here in Europe reference to God has become an anathama as society has secularised. That Donald Trump not only thanked God in front of the world but also declared his Love for God is no small matter as we see from the...

By Rabbi Danny Bergson Yesterday was the 23rd of the month of Sivan. This was the date in the original Purim story (circa 2500 years ago) when practically speaking everything turned around in favour of the Jewish people. This was the date when letters were sent throughout the 127 provinces of the Persian empire in the name of the Emperor Achashverosh granting permission for the Jewish people to organise and defend themselves and stand up against those anti-Semites that sought their utter annihilation. The Purim story is characterised by one word in Hebrew contained within the scroll of Esther “venahafochu” literally “ everything turned around“. In other words, everything that the evil Haman and his cohorts tried to do to the Jewish people turned around on its head back onto our enemies. There is no coincidence that of all the nations in the world today it is the genocidal Ayatollah of Iran who seeks our destruction as part of their national agenda. Iran was ancient...

Celebrating Jewish survival on Pesach Oct 7 and its aftermath has awakened us to the harsh reality of the ever-lurking forces of evil that seek the annihilation of the Jewish people (and the Western free democratic societies). The rabbis captured this sentiment in the Passover Haggadah liturgy with the famous words “And this is what kept our fathers and what keeps us surviving. For, not just one alone has risen against us to destroy us, but in every generation they rise against us to destroy us, and the Holy One Blessed Be He saves us from their hands.” This Piyut (liturgical poem) appears as far back as the 8th Century. By then 7 centuries had passed since the destruction of the second Temple and exile of the Jewish people from their land. By the second century after the second Jewish-Roman war some 1 million Jews had been killed or sent away as slaves. Jewish life did not get any better in the next few centuries with continued...

From Left to Right: Rebbetzen Anna Bergson, Kate Lurie (JAMH), Mayor of Stockport,  Sara Radivan (Board of Deputies) and the Mayor of Salford International women’s day interfaith event hosted by the Board of Deputies and Mayoress of Stockport at Stockport town hall by Anna Bergson I felt very proud and privileged to represent our community and specifically women of faith at the event above on Wednesday. I was even more taken aback and humbled when Sara Radivan from the BOD asked me to deliver a prayer and lead a song. After some thought about what would be most appropriate, I chose l’man achai v’reyay ("For the sake of my brothers and friends") which is a verse calling all brothers (in this case sisters!) together, and continues requesting peace and goodness for each other - a very unifying and universal message of hope. The Mayoress of Stockport was extremely warm, welcoming and friendly and we had a very long conversation during which she told me about one...