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Web Links and Bibliography
Links - General
JUDAISM
| If you learn best by ‘being there’, you might be interested in a Day Limmud, a modestly priced learning event on a Sunday (dates and venues are at http://www.limmud.org/day/). ‘Limmud’ is Hebrew for ‘learning’ and this cross-communal network of learners also runs residentials: a summer Fest and a winter conference. |
| This site makes a good first port of call for accessible and relatively simple information. Its main topics include: Judaism basics; branches of Judaism (note: written from a North American not European perspective); lifecycle events; and Jewish holidays (festivals). From the ‘about.com’ stable, it also provides a free weekly e-mail about Judaism to sign up for. |
| This “personal gateway to Jewish exploration” is organised around: culture; daily life and practice; holidays (festivals); history and community; lifecycle; ideas and beliefs; texts; and special topics. Intended for Jews who wish to deepen their understanding, it contains a range of articles on four levels (I Primer; II Topical overviews; III Deeper explorations; IV Analysis and interpretation). There are factual quizzes, too. Level I is enough to equip you for teaching Judaism at Key Stage 2 but the higher-level articles are written from varying perspectives and make stimulating reading. |
| Comprehensive and well structured, this online encyclopaedia provides a high level of detail and some serious material. It is particularly strong on biography, history and current affairs. |
| Named ‘Judaism 101’, this “online encyclopaedia of Judaism” is “written from a traditional perspective”. The ‘differentiated’ material is helpfully marked as ‘basic’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘advanced’. |
LITERATURE ON JEWISH THEMES
T. Carmi (editor and translator), The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse, Penguin Books, 1981
A poetry anthology from the Bible to the 20th century, from Israel and all over the Jewish world, secular, spiritual and religious; a rich resource.
Novels by Chaim Potok
Foremost among these—and his first—is The Chosen (1967) set in the 1940s in New York. It explores family relationships, the diversity of the Jewish community (Modern Orthodoxy, Hasidism, Zionism) and certain tensions between tradition and modernity. Its sequel, The Promise (1969), follows the friendship between the two central characters into the 1950s. My Name is Asher Lev (1972) is concerned with the meaning, nature and scope of Jewish visual art.
The short stories of Sholom Aleichem (born Sholom Rabinovich)
The basis for the musical and film Fiddler on the Roof, this work encapsualtes with tenderness and humour the traditional life of Yiddish-speaking, rural, East European Jewish life—from which many British Jews came to England on the cusp of the 19th—20th centuries. Good anthologies in English include The Best of Sholom Aleichem (edited by R. Wisse, I. Howe), Walker and Co., 1991; and Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories (translated by H. Halkin), Schocken Books, 1996.
Novels by Leon Uris
Mila 18 (Penguin Books, 1983/2000) centres on the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against Nazi occupation in 1943, with gripping and considerably reliable historicity. QB VII (short for Queen’s Bench VII), 1970, is a chilling novel about the role of a Polish doctor in a Nazi concentration camp. It derives from Uris’ trial for defamation after the publication of his best-known novel Exodus (1958).
The writings of Bernard Malamud
His most enduring work The Fixer (1966) reflects on the images and roles of Jews in society. It is based on the story of Menahem Mendel Beilis, an unjustly imprisoned Jew in Tzarist Russia and the infamous ‘Beilis trial’ of 1913. Malamud also published several collections of short stories, including The Magic Barrel (1958).
The work of Shmuel Yosef Agnon
One of Israel’s finest writers, Agnon won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1966. Only Yesterday is intellectually challenging and deals with the theological struggles of an observant Jew who attends synagogue—and prays (translated by Barbara Harshav, Princeton University Press, 2002).
Links - Who We Are
Community Wide
| Board of Deputies of British Jews (‘The Board’) |
| The United Jewish Israel Appeal (UJIA) With its tag ‘the heart of Jewish life’, it emphasises the development of young people. Its work focuses on the Jewish communities in Britain and the Galil (Galilee, northern Israel), and creates a “living bridge” between them. Its many services include the Jewish Life Education Centre (formerly, Makor): its staff serve the youth and student movements and clubs; it houses Europe’s largest resource collection for informal Jewish education; and it organises tours of Jewish places of interest in Britain. |
| The Jewish Chronicle (‘The JC’) www.thejc.com As the mainstream Jewish weekly in Britain, the JC can be ordered from newsagents. The online version at gives tasters and has a good search facility but subscription is needed for the digital newspaper in full. |
Religious Movements and Organisations Within the British Jewish Community
| The United Synagogue www.theus.org.uk The United Synagogue is an organising body of Orthodox synagogues and its religious guidance comes from the Chief Rabbi (of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth). It “strives to be a modern and united family of communities with members connected to vibrant Jewish life and Torah values”. With over 60 congregations in Britain, it is the largest synagogue organisation in Europe. Tribe (www.tribeuk.com) is ‘Young United Synagogue’ from babyhood to parenthood. [Note: there are other, smaller Orthodox synagogue organisations in Britain.] |
| The Movement for Reform Judaism www.reformjudaism.org.uk Reform Judaism is “an uncompromising assertion of eternal truths and values and an open, positive attitude to new insights and changing circumstances”. An expanding movement, it has over 40 congregations in Britain today. Jeneration (www.jeneration.org), backed by the Movement for Reform Judaism, is “a portal for Jewish life on your terms”. [Note: Reform synagogues in North America are more ‘reform’ than in Europe, that is, North American Reform synagogues (usually called ‘Temples’) are less traditional in practice than European Reform synagogues.] |
| Liberal Judaism www.liberaljudaism.org Liberal Judaism has over 30 congregations in Britain, some of which are called “progressive”. It “reverences Jewish tradition, and seeks to preserve all that is good in the Judaism of the past. But it lives in the present.” It permits marriage-blessing ceremonies for mixed-faith couples and accepts as Jewish those children whose mother is not Jewish but whose father is. [In Orthodox, Masorti and European Reform Judaism, children are Jewish if their mother is; and Jewish marriages are only conducted between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman.] |
| The Assembly of Masorti Synagogues www.masorti.org.uk ‘Masorti’ means ‘traditional’. About 40 years old, Masorti is a small but growing movement in Britain, with over 10 congregations. It aims to “receive from the past, to stand in the present and to transmit to the future”, emphasising both critical thought and commitment to practice, both the ritual and the ethical. [The Masorti movement in Israel and Europe is close to Conservative Judaism in North America.] |
The Sefardi Community
From the Hebrew for ‘Spain’, Sefardi (or, Sephardi) Jews are descended from those whose forebears originated in the Iberian Peninsula and almost all of whom had been expelled by the 1490s. They migrated mainly to parts of the Ottoman Empire and to the Netherlands, from where some were able to settle in England in 1656. The oldest extant synagogue—Bevis Marks, in London’s East End—was built in 1702: its style echoes that of the great synagogue of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Amsterdam. The community’s fully functioning synagogue (built in 1896) is in Lauderdale Road, west London. There is more information at www.sephardicstudies.org/uk and www.sephardim.com
Links - What We Do
Kashrut
| Kashrut at My Jewish Learning http://www.myjewishlearning.com My Jewish Learning is a comprehensive resource and has useful articles on the themes and history of kashrut, and a provocative piece—Eco-Kashrut—on the relationship between kashrut and ecology. There is also a particularly succinct overview—Keeping KosherIf you’re interested in discovering whether particular foods (including processed products) are kosher, you will find the kosher guide on the United Synagogue (the largest Orthodox Jewish organisation in Britain) website helpful. It has an excellent search facility. |
Synagogue
| Synagogue at My Jewish Learning http://www.myjewishlearning.com For an extremely useful article on Synagogue Geography go to this site. To know about and understand how to behave in a synagogue, try the explanation of Head Coverings and tips on Entering a Synagogue on the same site. |
| Synagogue Locator http://www.somethingjewish.com Here you can find thesynagogue closest to your school, with a view to a visit, go to where synagogues are listed under ‘United’ (Orthodox, Ashkenazi), ‘Reform’, ‘Sephardi’ (Orthodox, Middle Eastern in origin), ‘Masorti’ (traditional in practice and progressive in outlook) and ‘Liberal’. Alternatively phone the Board of Deputies of British Jews on 020 7543 5400. |
Virtual Tour of a Synagogue www.avisittoswanseasynagogue.co.uk This site was created by Norma Glass of the Swansea Synagogue. It includes a video tour of a synagogue (which was founded in 1730) and information on features of the synagogue as well as a video of a Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony and a talk on the Jewish Way of Life. There are also contact details to arrange a visit to Swansea Synagogue for schools in the local area. |
Shabbat
| Judaism 101 at www.jewfaq.org There’s an accurate and probably adequate introduction in the |
| Shabbat at Jewish Virtual Library A little fuller is the material under the headings The nature of Shabbat; Zachor: to remember; Shamor: to observe; and A Typical Shabbat under theShabbat section of this site. |
| Shabbat at My Jewish Learning A wealth of material appears |
Festivals
| The Jewish Year www.virtualjerusalem.com
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| Jewish Festivals at My Jewish Learning The pageAbout Jewish Holidays at myjewishlearning.com gives an overview of the Jewish calendar with links pieces offering information, ideas, insights and illustrations about the whole range of Jewish festivals. |
Rites of Passage
Jewish Lifecycle at My Jewish Learning Life cycle events are introduced, with links to each, at the About Jewish Lifecycle page at this site. There are four levels of learning and you can even take the quiz—with instant feedback! There are discussions of new ceremonies there, too. | |
| Jewish Lifecycle at Jewish Virtual Library Brit Milah, Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah and has detailed sub-sections on Marriage and Death and mourning. |
Links - What We Believe
Below you will find some resources on Jewish concepts of Torah, Israel, and Jewish actions and values.
Torah
Reading short commentaries on the weekly Torah portions posted on the sites listed below—which between them give a lot of the breadth of the religious spectrum—will give you insight into the diverse ways in which Jews interpret the Torah. You can also subscribe for free weekly mailings.
| A Taste of Limmud Jews along the religious continuum ‘take turns’ week to week in offering a commentary. For current and archived commentaries, visit http://www.limmud.org/publications/tasteoflimmud/index/ or e-mail iwantatasteoflimmud(at)limmud.org, if you prefer a commentary to land in your in-box each week. |
| D’var Torah from Leo Baeck College The “premier centre for Progressive Jewish learning” (www.lbc.ac.uk) serves the Reform, Liberal and Masorti communities in Europe. For the weekly D’var Torah (talk about the Torah) e-mail rhona.lesner(at)lbc.ac.uk |
| The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) From the mid-stream “academic and spiritual center of Conservative Judaism worldwide”(www.jtsa.edu) come varied commentaries at the |
| ‘Covenant and Conversation’ Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi (Orthodox) of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth (www.chiefrabbi.org), writes and audio-records a weekly Torah commentary, with a facility to subscribe at http://www.chiefrabbi.org/tt-index.html |
Israel
The Jewish Way of Life CD-Rom does not deal with politics but political questions may be of interest to you and some pupils may raise questions of a political nature that require reliable information. There are countless resources focusing on Israel—some hostile, some sympathetic and some aiming to provide accurate information and present a fair and balanced picture. A selection of websites with the latter aims are listed here:
| The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) www.mfa.gov.il This website contains important government documents and articles on such subjects as the government and history of Israel, along with maps. It has an excellent search facility. |
| Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) www.bicom.org.uk This website has useful timelines, maps and information about peace plans. Click ‘newsletter signup’, if you wish to receive summaries of coverage of Israel-related events in Israeli and British media. |
| Myths and Facts: a Guide to the Arab-Israeli conflict Mitchell Bard’s well-structured book (of the same title) is available online at www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mftoc and is regularly updated. |
| The Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) www.jewishagency.org This site is intended for Jewish educators but you may find the ‘compelling content’ section on the ‘ |
| The New Israel Fund www.newisraelfund.org.uk The New Israel Fund is engaged in: fighting for civil and human rights; closing the social and economic gaps; promoting religious tolerance and pluralism; and promoting Arab-Jewish co-existence. It is also concerned with: the environment; immigrants; and women’s rights. The website contains news about, and discussion of, these issues. |
| State of Israel National Photo Collection http://147.237.72.31/topsrch/defaulte.htm This valuable archive, which began in 1948, went online in 1998. It is a rich resource, with basic and advanced search facilities. Photos can be downloaded without charge for educational purposes. |
Literature set in Israel or on Israeli themes
the poetry of Yehudah Amichai—whose colloquial style was a revolution in Hebrew verse and who was popularly regarded as a ‘poet laureate’—such as The Selected Poetry Of Yehuda Amichai (1986/1996), Poems of Jerusalem (1996) and Exile at Home (1998);a small collection appears at http://www.ithl.org.il/amichai/poems.html
Shmuel Yosef Agnon, the Israeli writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1966 and whose novel Only Yesterday is now available in English
Lynne Reid Banks, One More River (1973) and its sequel Broken Bridge (1994), which are for ‘older readers’, make an easy read for adults but one that stimulates thought about the history of Israel—where the British non-Jewish author lived for several years
Linda Grant, When I Lived in Modern Times (2000), a story of love, intrigue and adventure set in 1946 (during the British Mandate) and exploring images of time and memory
the work of David Grossman, one of Israel’s most internationally acclaimed writers, such as Sleeping on a Wire: Conversations with Palestinians in Israel (1992) and novels such as See: under love (1986)
the work of Amos Oz, one of Israel’s most prolific and celebrated writers and social commentators—that explores such themes as Israeli, Arab-Jewish relationships, freedom and pluralism—such as In the Land of Israel (1993) and novels The Hill of Evil Counsel (1991), The Slopes of Lebanon (1992) and Under this Blazing Light (1996)
Muriel Spark, The Mandelbaum Gate (1965), a novel of intrigue set in the early years of the State of Israel, the division of Jerusalem and the eponymous crossing point across no-man’s-land between Israel and Jordan
Leon Uris, Exodus (1958), a novel centred on the plight of Holocaust refugees, immigration restrictions in the British Mandate and the founding of the State of Israel
Jewish Actions and Values
This is a sample of the many Jewish organisations in Britain that are engaged in elements of “tikkun olam” (Hebrew for “repairing the world”) through social activism, community relations and environmental concern:
| Alif Aleph www.aauk.org ‘Alif’ and ‘Aleph’ are the translations of the first letters of the Arabic and Hebrew alphabets, respectively. Alif Aleph is “a group of British Muslims and British Jews committed to develop positive contacts between our communities as a ‘good practice model’ for all communities in the UK”. |
| The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) www.ccj.org.uk The CCJ works with Christian and Jewish communities to promote mutual understanding and combat prejudice and antisemitism. It is a national organisation, with many local branches, that engages in dialogue and several educational activities. |
| The Big Green Jewish Website www.biggreenjewish.org The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Noah Project are partners in “connecting Judaism and the environment”. The website has a small but very useful resources section which includes, for example, ‘ |
| Jewish Council for Racial Equality (JCORE) www.jcore.org.uk “As Jews, we know what happens when others stand by and do nothing. That's why our community needs to speak out—to help to bring about change and challenge racism at its roots.” JCORE produces a number of educational materials on these issues. |
| Under the banner of “educating for life”, British ORT supports World ORT, which is the world’s largest Jewish NGO. Its international network of nurseries, schools and workshops provides practical educational and training programmes for hundreds of thousands of pupils and students. |
| Tzedek www.tzedek.org.uk With the badge “Jewish action for a just world”, Tzedek (Hebrew for “righteousness”) is a Jewish overseas development and educational charity. It supports projects financially and groups of volunteers also work with community organisations in India, Ghana and Kenya. |
| World Jewish Relief www.worldjewishrelief.org.uk World Jewish Relief provides emergency relief and welfare, and instigates creative support programmes to improve the lives of the most vulnerable, especially (today) in the Former Soviet Union, Serbia, Bulgaria and Argentina. |
Places to Visit
Museums
The Jewish Museum www.jewishmuseum.org.uk/learning/
The London Jewish Museum’s website currently contains some resources for teachers and information about the workshops and sessions they offer. However, in the run up to the new museum opening in summer 2009, new educational facilities for both teachers and learners will come online throughout 2009… Watch this space!
Manchester Jewish Museum www.manchesterjewishmuseum.com
Sandwiched between Manchester Fort and the vibrant city centre, Manchester Jewish Museum is a hidden treasure. The Museum is located in a former Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue and is the oldest surviving synagogue building in Manchester, completed in 1874. The Museum chronicles the lives of Jewish people in Manchester and their contribution to making the City what it is today.