The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ) and Simmons & Simmons invite you to 'Faith in capitalism: how can we make the global economy more ethical?. This is a breakfast seminar. The speakers will be: Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach (Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs and Chairman, Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lambeth Fund), Alex Brummer (City Editor, Daily Mail and columnist, Jewish Chronicle) and John Micklethwait (Editor-in-Chief, The Economist and author, “God is back”). Please click here for more details and location.

Visit to North Watford Mosque on North Western Avenue, North Watford (the branch make a yearly visit to a place of worship) Meet in the Mosque carpark at 2.30 p.m. For further details, please contact CCJ.

Anthony Seldon (Head of Wellington College) will speak on 'Why both Judaism and Christianity have lost their way, yet are more important than ever before' on Tuesday May 11th 2010 7.45 for 8.00pm at Maidenhead Synagogue Grenfell Lodge, Ray Park Road, Maidenhead, SL6 8QX. All welcome - admission free. To find out more, download more information about this event.

On Tuesday May 11th CCJ Hillingdon was at Hatch End Free Church at 8 p.m. May's speaker, Rabbi Michael Hilton, has long been a supporter of CCJ nationally, and for CCJ Hillingdon locally, challenging our preconceived ideas in many ways.

To find out more, download the details for this event.

On Tuesday May 11th CCJ Hillingdon will be at Hatch End Free Church at 8 p.m. May's speaker, Rabbi Michael Hilton, has long been a supporter of CCJ nationally, and for us locally, challenging our preconceived ideas in many ways.

To make it easier for Rabbi Hilton's own Hatch End community to enjoy his talk, Reverend Lynn Flack is kindly welcoming us to the Hatch End Free Church - just continue from Northwood or Eastcote to Pinner Green and another mile past Hatch End railway station to the roundabout where you'll see the church on the corner. To find out more, download the details for this event.

If you would like to have a lift, please let me know in case we can arrange that. My next request is, please let me know if you would like to offer a lift! It might be an opportunity for even more dialogue.

Hillingdon Interfaith Network has organised a General Election Hustings in each of the three constituencies in the area:

Thursday April 22nd at 7.30pm - Uxbridge & South Ruislip at St. John's Church, Hillingdon Hill
Monday April 26th at 7.30pm - Ruislip & Northwood at Northwood and Pinner Liberal Synagogue
Tuesday April 27th at 7.30pm - Hayes and Harlington at St. Anselm's Church, Hayes Town Centre

More information about the hustings is available to download here.

The Holocaust Memorial Day Service was held on Sunday 11th April, 6.30pm at Harold House, Dunbabin Road, Liverpool L15. This day is designated as a memorial for the six million Jews who perished in the camps during Hitler's Nazi regime in Germany.

This day remembers the men and women who feel in defence of the State of Israel during, and since, the War of Indepedence. The Communal Memorial Serice was held at 6pm on Sunday 19th April at King David Primary School, Beauclair Drive, Liverpool L15 6XH.

This festival to celebrate the 62nd Anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel took place at Harold House from 7pm on Monday 19th April. This was a festival involving music, food and a market.

For more information take a look at: Liverpool Jewish calendar

On March 3rd 2010, the Library at CCJ Central Office was dedicated to the late wife of Leonard Lass, who funded the cataloguing of the CCJ Library. The event was attended by Bishop Nigel of Manchester, and the library was dedicated with Christian and Jewish prayers. Dr. Kopelowitz, Vice President of CCJ, placed a mezuzah on the door of the library.

Dr. Kopelowitz putting a mezuzah on the door

The Irene Rachel Lass Memorial Library is a collection of almost 3000 resources on topics within the Jewish-Christian encounter, such as Antisemitism and the Holocaust. For more details, read our CCJ Library page.

CCJ's newsletter for branches is now available. It is available to download here or from our Dialogue section.

CCJ Leeds sent their year in news to CCJ Central Office. Find out what has been happening at Leeds Branch:
27th January 2009 - Mr. Arek Hersh, to mark Holocaust Memorial Day, spoke to about 100 people at a showing of his reminiscient film about the events that touched his life in the extermination camps.
1st April 2009 - In response to our request, one of the Canons of the Cathedral gave us a talk about the history and work of the Cathedral. We were then given a guided tour of the site and had many of its distinctive features pointed out to us. A part of the purpose was to have an activity which the Harrogate Jewish community could come to.
16th June 2009 - John Parker, the Bishop of Leeds gave an address on one of his predecessors in the Bishopric.
14th September 2009 - The Annual Public Lecture. Each year we are invited by the Lord Mayor of Leeds to provide a Public Lecture relevant to the aims and work of CCJ. The address was given by Dr. Edward Kessler of the Woolf Institute in Cambridge.

Stephen Griffiths, chair of CCJ Lincoln, reports Lincoln's commemoration of the Holocaust:
Friday, 22 January 2010 - I visited Bishop King school to talk to 10/11 year olds about the nature of anti-Semitism and what the Holocaust was all about. This had to be done carefully both to avoid frightening the children and to ensure they understood the concepts, but the teacher feedback afterwards left me in no doubt that I had achieved this purpose. I think this is the youngest children should be when exposed to such issues, but they all took it well and appeared attentive and well focussed on what I had to say.
Sunday 24 January 2010 - at St John the Baptist CofE Parish Church, a HMD meditation service organised by a young student whose life had been so influenced by a visit to Auschwitz that she felt impelled to mark HMD in her own community. The event was attended by my wife, Micky, and me representing CCJ and the Jewish community together with over 20 members of the church. The programme included readings from Anne Frank's diary, thoughts on man's inhumanity to man, suitable hymns, the writing of our hopes for a peaceful future on a hand-shaped piece of paper with all the hands then being arranged on the altar on a continuous Circle of Hope and concluded with a very moving address from the local vicar on the significance of the Priestly Blessing to the Jewish faith. All there were very moved when I was able to give them the blessing in Hebrew as well.

Thursday 28 January 2010 - organised by CCJ Lincoln and held at the Bailgate Methodist Church, speaker Arek Hersh, a Holocaust survivor, who showed a documentary film of his experiences and then answered questions. The attached photo shows Arek with me and my wife on the right plus others from the audience. Attended by over 120 people possibly as a result of my being able to have a good piece in the local newspaper about it, plus 10 minutes of air time on local radio being interviewed about the event and HMD in general. This is now the third year we have attracted an audience of this size. Next year we are planning a different format with, hopefully, an event co-ordinated with the Cathedral and local schools.
Monday 1 February 2010 - at the Collection Museum, attended by over 90 students from Christ's Hospital School plus members of the public. Mr Oppenheimer, a Holocaust survivor, gave a very thought-provoking and emotive personal testimony of his experiences during the Holocaust. Following his testimony, Stuart Bennett from the Holocaust Education Trust carried out a workshop based on the issues raised in Mr Oppenheimer's talk. Overall the event was very well received indeed and pupils, teachers and the visiting public were able to learn from the experiences of someone who lived through and survived the Holocaust.
Friday, 5 Feb 2010 - I visited Robert Pattinson School to talk to 6th formers about anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and in particular anti-Semitic incidents in this country. Being an older group of children, they certainly asked a lot of penetrating questions about Judaism, the Church's attitude towards Jews and my own personal experiences as a Jew in the military.

This travelling exhibition is a project sponsored by the "Remembrance Book for the Prisoners of Dachau Concentration Camp" and financed by political, cultural, educational, religious and historical organisations in Bavaria. It features biographies of former Dachau Concentration Camp prisoners from all over Europe, from all walks of life, political, religious and racial backgrounds. The former prisoners, or the relatives of those who didn't survive, were interviewed by young German school pupils and university students.

The exhibition consists of 29 x 7ft banners which include an introduction to the state of Europe during WW2, the historical background to the Dachau Concentration Camp, a map of Europe showing the location of the camps and where the prisoners came from and 22 testimonies. The booklet that accompanies the exhibition gives a more detailed account of the former prisoners.

The exhibition was launched at Harold House, the Jewish Community Centre, by Prof Eve Rosenhaft from the German dept of Liverpool University. She then gave a talk entitled "Fight or Flight" - the reaction of German Jews to the rise of Nazism.

Following the exhibition at Harold House, Merseyside CCJ moved it to the Gateway Exhibition area at Liverpool Hope University (Childwall Campus) for this week. This was been a great success not only in the number of people who have engaged with the testimonies but also in furthering relations with the University.

The allocated area, gifted to CCJ, in a bright, airy, modern building, has proved to be the ideal venue. A full size screen was available allowing CCJ to enhance the testimonies with high quality films.


Liz Spencer, Sonia Strong and Dean Justin Welby

The work of CCJ has been brought to many people's attention, and more importantly, reminding young people of the horrors of World War 2. Professor Gerald Pillay, Vice-Chancellor, and Dean Justin Welby from the Anglican Cathedral each passed considerable time viewing the exhibition. Their favourable comments resulted in a day's extension to the time at Hope and space in the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral next year.

This exhibition is easily transported and is free. Merseyside CCJ recommends it all branches.

The Jewish Film Week in March was very successful and the CCJ Committee is certain that all who were able to support it found it both educational, thought provoking and enjoyable. Thanks are due to FACT for hosting it, the Jewish Film Institute for the films and to Sonia Strong for co-ordinating it.