Leap of faith: Limmud

Limmud was founded in 1980, holding its first conference in Britain with 80 participants. It is now an international movement creating impactful and immersive learning, access to leadership for all and connections across many of the divides that often keep Jews isolated from each other.

For me the jewel in its crown is the annual Limmud Festival, held at the Birmingham NEC in the last week of each year, where upwards of 2,000 people join together for five days to learn, to connect and, in Limmud’s words, take one step further on their Jewish journey.

I have gone to learn and teach at Limmud now for almost every one of the past 25 years. I tend to go for just one or two days each time. For me there is so much going on and so much learning on offer that I have always felt I would find more than that too much!

There are so many things I love about the Limmud Festival experience. The first for me is that this is a truly cross-communal Jewish space. Progressive Jews learn from Orthodox Jews and vice versa. Religious Jews learn from secular Jews and vice versa too. British Jews learn from teachers from around the world, and vice versa again.

Rather than having spaces of division, if you do not agree with the views of a presenter or teacher, Limmud encourages all to listen and debate with respect. Part of this is achieved by no-one going by their professional title. No one is labelled Rabbi, Cantor, Chief Executive or Educator. Everyone is just who they essentially are. No one needs to book to attend anything – every session is open to all.

There is respect for different religious needs, every denomination has space for their own styles of Jewish prayer, but there are no barriers to attendance.

There are immense learning sessions where many hundreds of people come to hear a presenter whose story or teaching captures the imagination of so many.

For me, this year, to hear Keith and Aviva Siegel, who had been held in captivity in Gaza and whose lives had meant so much to our congregation, was deeply moving, both because I heard them with hundreds of others and because the atmosphere of Limmud meant that it was possible to subsequently speak with them in person.

There are intimate learning sessions where you are one of just four or five people who want to learn about a topic. These create a special sense of connection with the teacher, who may be from another country or another part of the Jewish spectrum, which you would rarely encounter elsewhere.

Limmud is a place where Jewish peoplehood is real. The borders between denominations, generations and between teachers and learners are removed. We should deeply treasure all Jewish organisations that work like this.

Rabbi Mark Goldsmith is at Edgware and Hendon Reform Synagogue