Parashat B'ha'alot'cha This week’s parsha seems to be all about complaining. Firstly, let me explain and translate the verb to complain in cases anyone here doesn’t understand that. It simply means to kvetch. Our portion starts in Bemidbar chapter 11, verse 1 with the people looking to complain – it doesn’t actually say about what – just that they want to complain. Later in the chapter – verse 11 – Moses complains to G-d. Maybe part of our heritage is the propensity to co

Count me in - but not without Israel At the Pesach Seder I always try to have representatives of other religions with us, such as my friend Archdeacon Martin Lloyd Williams, who also did us the honour of visiting us at Chanukah. I am proud, too, to have welcomed young people from a mosque during the week of Sukkot in I believe deeply in the importance of interfaith dialogue. I was one of the founders of Faith in Action: a network bringing together people of different faiths,

The Myth That Israel Is Unsafe With your permission, today I would like to try to dismantle one of the most irritating — and in some cases worst-faith — clichés currently circulating. It goes something like this: “Israel is the most dangerous place on earth to be Jewish.” Or, in a slightly more sophisticated version: “If British Jews are afraid here, where exactly do they think they are going to go? Israel? Surely Israel is even less safe.” Now, of course, there are real dang