Limmud Conference, the British Jewish community’s answer to the Edinburgh
Festival, celebrates its 30th anniversary this week at the University of Warwick
in Coventry.
Close to 2,500 people from all walks of Jewish life and from
across the world will brave the extreme weather conditions between Sunday and
Thursday, for Jewish learning in Limmud’s unique style.
Participants can
choose from 1,200 sessions, including lectures, discussions, workshops, debates,
drama and music performances, and text study.
Following Limmud’s dictum
that “everyone should be a student and anyone can be a teacher” more than 400
participants will present sessions, including rabbis, journalists, poets,
singers, academics, writers, educators, politicians and
activists.
Highlights include Efrat Chief Rabbi Shlomo Riskin; Gaza UNRWA
Director John Ging in conversation with London communal rabbi Jonathan
Wittenberg; MK Miri Eisen, a former government spokeswoman and one of the few
women to reach the rank of colonel in the IDF; Simcha Jacobovici, star of hit
television program The Naked Archaeologist; Laizy Shapira, TV soap Srugim
creator and director; and Robby Berman, founding director of the Halachic Organ
Donor Society.
For the first time, a selection of sessions each day will
be live streamed over the Internet, available from Limmud’s homepage
(www.limmud.org) and enabling many more to learn from the comfort of their own
homes.
“Limmud believes that there are many opportunities for learning
that can inspire people and strengthen their identities,” Limmud Programming
chairman Dan Jacobs said. “Our 30th birthday program is rich with high-quality
offerings to help our participants take one step further on their Jewish
journeys.”
There will be an eclectic variety of music performances and
workshops ranging from Israeli electrodance sensation Onili and soulful American
star Sam Glaser to renowned British- Jewish conductor Stephen Glass and the
doyenne of Jewish summer camp songbooks Debbie Friedman.
Eser, a
collaboration between former Shotei Hanevua frontman Israeli Roi Levi, and Danny
Raphael, a UK-born-andbred vocalist, will debut at Limmud 30.
“We’ve got
200 volunteers putting this incredible undertaking together,” said Danielle
Nagler, one of Conference 2010’s two voluntary co-chairs.
Together with
co-chairman Steven Fisher, the conference team was mid-set up at the University
of Warwick, where Limmud completely takes over the campus.
Volunteers
were working round the clock with university staff to clear and prepare the site
after experiencing some of the heaviest snowfall in over 20 years.
Dozens
of flights were rearranged at the last minute by Limmud’s team to ensure that no
international presenters were forced to pull out and buses have been laid on for
those who aren’t able to drive in the conditions.
Limmud, which began
with 70 Jewish educators getting together Christmas week 30 years ago, is today
a global movement, with over 35,000 participants at Limmud events around the
Jewish world in any one of 55 Limmud International communities, from Amsterdam
to Atlanta, Cambridge to Cape Town, Modi’in to Moscow, Paris to Philadelphia,
and Istanbul to Toronto.