Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz

photo: Esther Hugenholtz, 2011 Jerusalem – An Eternal Story (talk given at the Leeds Yom Yerushalaim celebration) Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz  For a Jerusalem summer it was unseasonably hot, the mercury of the thermometer pushing past 45 degrees and it was the thick of Ramadan. I wove my way through the Arab sector of the Old City after having visited the Kotel with a friend of mine where we had offered Mincha prayers. Out of respect for the fasting – and probably very thirsty - Muslim population, I discreetly hid my water bottle. We walked past an entrepreneurial Muslim vendor who was selling limonana – the refreshing mint lemonade – to eager tourists, despite the fast. My friend decided to buy some and after friendly ‘salaams’, the vendor offered me a plastic cup for free.  It was a simple and friendly in a city where despite her sweeping and at times difficult history, hospitality remains a core value. Despite the force of history, a Jew and a Muslim met over ...

Limmud Leeds May 18th 2014 Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz ‘Equal Citizens of the Halakhic Nation – women, men, rights and obligations’ This session will look at the tension between being a religious Jew and a Feminist. What do our ancient rabbinic texts say about the roles of women in prayer and leadership through the timebound commandments (ie tallit)? Is egalitarianism contradictory to Judaism or perhaps quite the opposite: a vision of being created in the Divine Image? By studying and discussing both rabbinic texts and contemporary experiences, we will make these important questions come alive in our own lives and communities and look at creating a more equal and inclusive Judaism. Issues to consider: -       Why are women exempted from timebound commandments? -       Does this exemption make sense within the halakhic system? -       Are tallit/tefillin ‘male’ garments? -...

screenshot of 'The Big Questions' On Sunday the 27th of April, I was honoured to be a guest on the BBC's 'The Big Questions'. All I knew is that it would be my UK television debut and my television debut in rabbinic capacity... and addressing a controversial topic ('Is Islam a threat to the West?') to boot.  The discussion was spirited with a broad panel of disparate opinions ranging from Muslim activists to a member of a Sharia watchdog organisation. My role, as far as I was concerned, was to be a reasonable voice for Progressive religion.  I wanted to show that the majority of people of all faiths (and no faith) in the world desire peace and that moderate religion should fulfil a crucial role in building those roads to peace. If religion is a force for evil in the world, than surely it can be a force for good. I also set myself the goal of trying to speak on the importance of gender equality and gay rights in religious traditions, citing Progr...

Sermon Parashat Kedoshim  Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz  'Lifnei Iver' - A Life with Visual Impairment “V’lifnei iver lo titen michshal…” – “Do not place a stumbling block before the blind” (Lev. 19:14). This is, of course, one of the famous ethical commands that lies embedded in the middle of the ritual heart of Vayikra (Leviticus). Wedged in between chapters 18 and 20 that deal with ritual, sexual and cultic prohibitions (the so-called ‘arayot’, ‘nakedness’), chapter 19 of parashat Kedoshim brims with compelling ethical instruction. We are taught to love the stranger, not curse the deaf, pay a worker’s wages on time, not favour the rich or the poor, use equal weights and measures, to not hate our fellow in our heart.  It would be easy then to explore the ethical commandments of Kedoshim in this sermon. It would be easy to tie it in with a particularly relevant or timely theme: after all, there are plenty of moral quandaries in today’s world that need addressin...

A few months ago, I went to see the film ' 12 Years a Slave ', directed by Steve McQueen. It's an incredibly important, compelling and shocking film and a must-see for all people, especially those interested in both the historical and contemporary reality of slavery.  The film is based on the book , '12 Years a Slave', written by Solomon Northup. Northup was a free black man living in New York State in the 19th century. A father of three, talented musician and an educated carpenter, he was abducted and sold into slavery in 1841 and taken South. After 12 years, he managed to secure his freedom and eventually wrote his memoirs.  In his memoirs, he recounts how his father - once a slave himself - acquires his freedom and builds a life for himself a generation earlier. Solomon's father raises him to love education and live a life of integrity. Still in the Pesach spirit, I was reading the book and found the following quote to be particularly poignan...

Sermon Shabbat Chol haMoed Pesach  Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz  Love is in the Air  When I wrote this sermon on Friday, the sunlight was streaming through my open window, bringing in the sounds, sights and smell of Spring. Roundhay Park looks resplendent in green and gold as does our own synagogue’s cherry tree in our beautifully-maintained garden (thank you, Ken Ellis!) I went to Harewood House on my day off with a friend and saw sheep and lamb cavorting in the lush grass. It’s an idyllic and supremely romantic season. In short, ‘love is in the air’.  There’s always that wonderful feeling to energised freshness that comes with Spring. That delightful feeling of leaving the house without your coat on and feeling the sun on your skin. It’s a time for love, for appreciating the bounty of our good Earth and the beauty of life. Of course, there is great darkness and difficulty in our world and we certainly shouldn’t close our eyes to that, but Pesach can be s...

First Day Pesach  Sermon Rabbi Esther Hugenholtz  The Pesach Perspective   A number of years ago, the diagnosis of a curious disease was formulated. The symptoms can be defined as follows, and I quote: "[Affluenza is] a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more."  Now, we can be inoculated by the winter influenza bouts but getting immunised against Affluenza is considerably more difficult. A lethal manifestation of Affluenza took the lives of four innocent pedestrians when a Texan ‘rich kid’, Ethan Couch, high on beer and valium, drove into them in last June. As devastating as this accident would be in any case, it was made all the more so by the law’s initially callous response: the millionaire teen’s psychologists and lawyers were quick to plead mercy, claiming that what the young man needed was not prison, but therapy in a 400,000$ a year rehabilitation centre...