Elkan’s View

View from Natanya

WEEK ENDING 3rd DECEMBER 2016 The weather is not normally a topic of conversation here in Israel. Occasionally when there is a Sharav, the hot dry wind that blows from

View from Natanya

WEEK ENDING 5th NOVEMBER 2016 Israel has been enjoying a long summer, and Sukkot despite being so late in October was sunny and dry, and the weather remains extremely pleasant.

View from Natanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA WEEK ENDING 24TH SEPTEMBER 201 It’s been a good summer including the unforgettable 50th anniversary of the Belmont Synagogue where I was the first Minister. To

View from Edgware

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM EDGWARE WEEK ENDING 6TH AUGUST 2016 This Shabbat is the 100th birthday of one of the great figures of Anglo Jewry, Lieutenant-Colonel Mordaunt Cohen, TD, DL. Mordaunt

View from Netanya

WEEK ENDING 3RD JUNE 2016 Last month I went to three of the oldest provincial communities in England. Each has a glorious history, and all have unusual buildings or artefacts

View from Natanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA – WEEK ENDING 7TH MAY 2016 Rabbi Dr Joseph Ber Soloveitchik (1903-1993) was the major leader of Modern Orthodoxy in the United States during the 20th

View from Natanya

Israel at the moment is in the lovely gap between Purim and Pesach. Last week the country was full of people in fancy dress, after a week of preparation schools

View from Natanya

Last Monday I ventured for the first time into a Hebrew play at the Habimah theatre in Tel Aviv. The Habimah started life in Bialystok in 1912 and despite persecution

View from Netanya

Dear Friends, I attach the current Elkan’s view which I hope you will enjoy. Elkan’s view was originally created to fill a gap for Radlett synagogue before the appointment of

View from Budapest

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM BUDAPEST 23 December 2015 From left to right: The Levy-Landau family – Eddie, Julian, Joshua, Jasmine. The Gurwitz family – Sam, Abigail, Jamie,

View from Cape Town

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM CAPE TOWN 9TH November 2015 South African Jewry is unique in world Jewish history. Some of the early Jewish settlers became Boers, spoke Afrikaans, and fought against

View from Netanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA 4TH November 2015 One of the things that really moves me is the way that Jewish communities in the Diaspora, at Pesach and Sukkot, pray for

View from Netanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA 21st October 2015 Doubtless you have been reading in the British papers, and seeing footage on the news, which suggests that life in Israel at the

View from Netanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA 7th October 2015 As usual the Festival of Sukkot in Israel was delightful. The weather has been unseasonably warm, with short sleeves and shorts being perfectly

View from Radlett

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM RADLETT 9th September 2015 Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection. In Jewish tradition it is only one of four new years. The others are 1st Nissan

View from Netanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA 2nd September 2015 A week on Sunday will mark the beginning of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, days of prayer and introspection when Am Yisrael, the

View from Netanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA 26th August 2015 To the considerable relief of parents and grandparents, an emotion not shared in the main by the students, the Chofesh Hagadol, the long

View from Netanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA 19th August 2015 Israel has been horrified internally by some of the events that have taken place in recent weeks, including the tragic murder of a

View from Netanya

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM NETANYA 12th August 2015 Like most people of my generation I can remember when Panorama, chaired by the unfogetteble Richard Dimbleby, embodied all the qualities inculcated into

View from Radlett

ELKAN’S VIEW FROM RADLETT 5th August 2015 It’s getting nasty. Obama, trying to leave some sort of acceptable legacy behind him, has crafted the agreement with Iran in an attempt