Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

Parashat Korach Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz The Conversation about the Conversation We need a conversation about the conversation.  ‘The’ conversation is a fractal; a paradigmatic image of all the overlapping and intersecting conversations in our lives, families and communities that we find challenging. Often, these conversations incorporate or even exacerbate the tensions we experience. From our family life right down to the quality of our civic discourse.  Every person is likely to define difficult conversations differently, depending on personal worldview, circumstance and experience. People are triggered differently. What I have found during my sojourning in the countries that I’ve lived in is that the nature of the conversation varies greatly from place to place. There are different taboos in the Netherlands, my home country, than there are in my host countries of the United Kingdom and the United States. It is incumbent upon the immigrant to learn, relearn...

Parashat Korach Esther Hugenholtz Herefortshire Liberal Community Empowerment, Not Entitlement When I was about to set off for university, my mother made me some golden promises. ‘It will be the best time of your life’. A ‘flower child’ of the late 1960’s, university had engendered that promise for her. For her it was a time of empowerment, self-discovery, of a mapping out of her democratic ideals which formed the ethics of my upbringing. University did fulfil that promise for me also. I became a student activist, read political literature, went on marches, and sought answers to the big questions in life. I was invited to nurture my intellect, encouraged to stand up for my beliefs and, most importantly, to be grateful for the privilege of exercising my basic human rights. Freedom of speech, assembly and the ballot. All these things are infinitely precious and should be cherished by any civilised society. As it is infinitely precious, our freedom is also quite delicate. Given this...