9th May 2025 Shabbat Shalom dear friends. Yesterday was a very important day, a new Pope was elected after just 2 days of conclave. A new Pope, an American who grew up in Chicago and spent much of his adult life in Peru, Pope Leo XIV, has the ability and opportunity to influence the world…

1st of May, 2025 Shabbat Shalom As the sun sets on the horizon, Yom HaAtzmaut, Israel’s Independence Day, is drawing to a close. 77 years and we have built, planted, grown, brought in, helped, fed, initiated, innovated, tended and been a light unto nations despite still fighting our war of independence; we really are an…

24th of April, 2025 Yom HaShoah 565 days since the 7th of October 2023 Today Israel commemorated Holocaust Memorial Day. The eerie sound of the two minute siren as Israel came to a standstill. This year commemorating the 80th year since the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenhau, a Nazi concentration camp and extermination camp in occupied Poland…

11th April, 2025 13th Nissan 5785 552nd of October Shabbat Shalom dear friends, Shabbat Shalom and a peaceful Pesach. “Justice doesn’t always arrive in sweeping gestures or loud declarations. Sometimes, it walks softly into a room and says, “This isn’t right”—and the world begins to shift. Our very special friend Dr Kim Taylor wrote these…

​4th April 2025 Shabbat Shalom, I wish you a peaceful Shabbat with only good surprises I made a promise yesterday!  I promised Rachel that I wouldn’t touch on politics today, just general news and happy events. It’s somewhat difficult but a promise is a promise. There are wonderful, exceptional things that happen here and in…

28th March, 2025 30th Shvat, 5785 1 year, 5 months and 20 days since October 7th Shabbat Shalom, Chodesh Tov (new month) the month of Nissan is almost behind us and Adar comes in tonight. A holy Eid-l-Fitr If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill; may my tongue cling to the…

19th March 2025 Today is a very important day in history. 80 years ago, on the 19th of March 1945, in the city of Jerusalem, a boy was born to the Rybak family, to Kalman and Alla Rybak. Their joy was all encompassing because they were both the sole survivors of the Holocaust, both families…

14th March, 2025 Purim, 5785 Purim Sameach. Shabbat Shalom. Ramadan Kareem and a holy St Joseph’s Day Once, in a speech in the White House, Sir Winston Churchill said “Jaw jaw jaw not war war war” meaning that it is always better to talk than to fight. To find a diplomatic solution. However, when there…

7th of March 2025 7th of Adar, 5785 518th of October Shabbat Shalom, Ramadan Mubarak, have a peaceful weekend David ben Gurion said “If Jerusalem will fall there will not be a State.” Not Tel Aviv, nor Haifa, Jerusalem, the City we should not forget. I want to begin with a quote from our dear…

27th February 2025 29th Shevat 5785 509 days since the 7th of October Shabbat Shalom and Hodesh Tov, a new month, the month of Adar, and, if I dare, I wish all my Moslem friends a peaceful Ramadan which begins tomorrow Haim Nachman Bialik was the Israeli poet laureate, the national author. Bialik wrote these…