British Jewry’s Unique Treasure Can Be Found In Birmingham

For five days at year’s end, the Limmud Festival becomes ‘the world’s largest center of Jewish learning and culture.’

On Christmas morning, more than 1,400 attendees at a unique Jewish educational program in Birmingham, England, were offered 22 sessions to choose from. Among them: 

Addiction, The Golden Calf and Us (a psychotherapist on addiction as a spiritual and psychological malady); Israel’s Changing Role In Global Energy Politics; Torah Study With Knives (a papercutting workshop); The Jewish Music of Leonard Bernstein;  an appreciation of the work of theologian Michael Wyschograd; 14 teenagers from Haifa on what they have to say about Israel today; Isaac and Rebecca Attend Family Therapy; a guide to learning Yiddish online and offline; and studying The Book of Ruth through chavruta (pair-powered learning).

Welcome to the Limmud Festival 2022, the annual flagship event of British Jewry that describes itself as “the world’s largest celebration of Jewish learning and culture.” I think of it, as well, as a timely and much-needed antidote to communal pessimism. That’s because for five mostly rainy days at year’s end, the participants of all ages, interests, backgrounds and beliefs who gathered to engage with and learn from each other as equals were sharing a sense of Jewish mission.

The great majority were British, but there were others from throughout Europe, Israel and the U.S. as well. 

This was my third Limmud Festival, having taken part in 2011 and 2017, and I have found each of them inspiring in both concept and reality, a blueprint for fostering cohesive community in a time of toxic polarization. 

Limmud (Hebrew for “study”) is a passionately lay-led British Jewish educational organization that in the course of its four decades has spawned an international grassroots movement. There are chapters in dozens of countries around the world, including 16 communities in North America. What they share is a non-denominational commitment to build community through Jewish learning. Banners throughout the convention center displayed Limmud’s mission: “Taking You One Step Further On Your Jewish Journey.” The distinct emphasis is on pluralism, diversity, mutual respect and appreciating disagreements “for the sake of heaven.”

That translated into participation at the Festival by a wide variety of Jews, from devout secularists to British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who spoke on the Jewish obligation to a life of social justice.

This year’s Festival, the first held in-person in three years, since Covid, offered up more than 600 50-minute sessions, chosen and presented by the participants themselves. 

None of the presenters, who range from internationally acclaimed scholars to lay people, are paid. (I was one of several dozen presenters invited from overseas who received free travel and lodging for giving at least three talks during the program.) I spoke about the challenges and rewards of a career in Jewish journalism; reviewed the Baruch Lanner sexual abuse scandal of more than two decades ago, exploring what, if anything, has changed; and took part in a panel discussion on “Jews in the USA at a Crossroad.” 

The latter program included Mark Gottlieb, senior director of the Tikvah Fund, Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Colorado State Representative, and moderator Efraim Chalamish, an economic legal scholar. It focused in part on the two fastest- growing segments of American Jewry, and the widening religious and political gap between them. They are the charedim on the right; and, on the left, “the nones,” those younger Jews who do not affiliate with synagogues or organizations. The Jewish establishment in the middle has had limited success in engaging either of the extremes, much less bringing them together.

Despite its size, Limmud retains its down-home spirit and warmth because it is almost entirely the work of volunteers. Hundreds of them were on the scene, handling everything from registration to meal service to logistics, with professional competence and personal attention. We were told that the planning team put in an estimated 26,000 volunteer hours over the last year preparing for the event, and spent another 3,000 hours during the five days of the Festival itself. 

The result was a comforting mix and overlap of the social and the serious. You could visit the Limmud Bar in the lobby to find a Biblical text study partner or have a beer – or both. There were regular slots for board games, meet-ups or to venture outside for co-ed “five-a-side-football,” all arranged by the social programming committee. Meal times found people deep in discussion in the very long but orderly lines waiting to enter the dining room. (You wouldn’t find “cut-and-chats” among the Brits.)

Among the thoughtful sessions I attended was one on “Losing Eden,” an exploration with Michah Gottlieb, a professor of Judaic studies at NYU, on how the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden resulted in the human condition as we know it.

A crowded room of Brits came to hear a report by a London Jewish Chronicle editor, Simon Rocker, on the culture clash between the the UK government and a number of London charedi schools over regulating secular studies, which in many ways mirrors the controversy in New York.

Rabba Yaffa Epstein, senior scholar of the Jewish Education Project (NY) and a veteran Limmud favorite, offered seven presentations in all. One, teaming with her psychotherapist husband, Shimmy Feintuch, explored various forms of love from both the psychological and Jewish perspectives. She offered several sessions billed as “attempting to redeem offensive Talmudic stories,” dealing with gender or non-Jews. Epstein also joined scholars Sara Wolkenfeld (Sefaria) and Wendy Amsellem (Yeshivat Maharat) to discuss their favorite Talmud passages.

The biggest crowd I encountered was for an almost two-hour close psychoanalytic exploration by culture writer Julia Wagner of “doubles, dreams and death” in Season 3 of “Shtisel,” the popular Israeli series on a troubled charedi family. 

In short, something for just about everyone.

Why isn’t there a U.S. parallel to the Limmud Festival?  There are one-day and occasional weekend Limmud retreats in the U.S., but in several ways, the UK is more ideally suited for such an extended endeavor. For starters, England virtually shuts down each year during the week between Christmas and New Years. (Some refer to that time period as Chol Hamoed for Gentiles.) With so many Jews home from work and school, Limmud became the place to go for Jewish learning, culture and socializing. Though most of the attendees this year appeared to be university students or retirees, there were a number of families in attendance as well, with programming for children throughout the day.

Another British advantage is that the great majority of its Jewish population, estimated at 275,000, live in and around London. And just about any part of the country is accessible to Birminghman, 120 miles northwest of London. 

For the U.S. to host a national Limmud Festival would be far more challenging in terms of cost and travel. But it is certainly something to aspire to, a way to counter the prevailing divides within our people by having us engage with – rather than dismiss or demonize – those with whom we disagree. 

In the meantime, though, I encourage you to connect with a Limmud chapter near you (www.limmudna.org) and consider traveling to England next December for an experience that could change your life.

Cheerio.

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