Banned Documentary Sparks Oxford Discussion on Iranian Jews

Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 5:15 AM

Renegade documentary filmmaker Ramin Farahani, whose latest film is banned in his home country of Iran, sat down with students at Oxford University’s Chabad-Lubavitch center for a Friday night Shabbat meal.

The get-together two weeks ago at the David Slager Chabad Jewish Student Centre came two days after “Jews in Iran” was screened at Oxford Brookes University nearby as part of the Oxford International Film Festival. The Friday-evening discussion, meanwhile, accompanied a dinner of traditional Persian foods.

“The event highlighted the pride of a community who have held on to their Jewish identity for 2,700 years, and still hold onto their Jewish identity in the face of an overwhelming Islamic socie… Read More »

United Kingdom Jewish Centers Welcome Students for Another University Term

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 6:12 PM

It’s back to school across the United Kingdom as university students return to classes for the beginning of their spring term. Among the returning collegians are an estimated 10,000 Jewish students, who last weekend began filling Shabbat tables at campus-based Chabad-Lubavitch centers on every major university in the country.

Each of the 10 Chabad Houses, having just emerged from the largest collection of Passover celebrations in recent memory, have formulated an array of programming with something for everyone, from relaxed get-to-togethers over shwarma to film screenings and one-on-one study sessions.

At Oxford University’s Chabad Society, where a term card full of engaging lecturers and artists has become th… Read More »

About 800 Jews celebrate Passover at Chabad on Campus across the UK

Tuesday, April 21, 2009 - 11:48 AM

"About 800 Jews celebrate Passover at Chabad on Campus across the UK"

Chabad on Campus organised communal Passover sedarim this year for a record number of approximately 800 Jews in ten locations throughout the UK, despite Passover falling outside the university term.

In Bristol, Brighton, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Nottingham and Oxford, Jewish students and young professionals, as well as many others from varied backgrounds, took the opportunity to attend Passover sedarim and Festival meals.

All the sedarim combined the traditional elements, such as the four cups of wine, matzos, bitter herbs, and charoset, with refreshing and lively songs and insights into the Passover story making it relevant to the experien… Read More »

Editors quit in Holocaust row

Thursday, April 2, 2009 - 9:16 AM

Editors quit in Holocaust row

Tuesday 3rd March 2009

By Fran Bardsley, Oxford Mail

A spoof publication by Oxford University students which mocked the Holocaust, cast racial slurs and superimposed staff and students’ faces on pornographic images has been branded unacceptable.

The editors of Cherwell resigned after being ordered to stand down by publishers Oxford Student Publications Ltd following the leak of a spoof of Cherwell called Lecher, which was originally circulated to editorial staff.

It included a faked image of a former editor dressed in a Ku Klux Klan uniform, and suggested bagpipes were used to torture Jewish children with ‘musical terrorism’ during the Holocaust.

Oxford University Student Union p… Read More »

Religious rage at Oxfordshire's contraceptive pill by text – Rabbi Eli speaks out

Thursday, April 2, 2009 - 9:13 AM

Religious rage at Oxfordshire's contraceptive pill by text – Rabbi Eli speaks out

Tuesday 31st March 2009

By Chris Walker

A SCHEME to allow schoolchildren in Oxfordshire to ask for the morning-after pill by text message has been condemned by religious leaders.

From July, girls as young as 11 at four secondary schools in Oxford and two in Banbury will be able to text requests for the pill – without their parents’ knowledge – if they have had unprotected sex, or believe contraception has failed.

The service is being introduced jointly by Oxfordshire County Council and Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust after a jump of almost 10 per cent in the number of girls aged 18 and under getting pregnant.

The move outraged… Read More »

UK Students Celebrate Historic Countrywide Shabbat Gathering with Ambassador Yehuda Avner in Oxford

Thursday, April 2, 2009 - 9:09 AM

UK Students Celebrate Historic Countrywide Shabbat Gathering with Ambassador Yehuda Avner in Oxford

By Joshua Runyan

International relations came to the front door of Oxford University’s Chabad Society as several pro-Palestinian demonstrators launched a loud protest on the busy thoroughfare of George Street Friday night.

Waving flags, handing out leaflets and raising their voices at passersby, the group objected to the appearance of veteran Israeli diplomat Yehuda Avner at the inaugural Shabbaton of campus-based Chabad-Lubavitch centres in the United Kingdom.

According to Rabbi Eli Brackman, director of the Oxford University centre and chairman of Chabad on Campus UK, an enterprising student went do… Read More »

Oxford Jewish Library to Add Rare Medieval Works to Collection

Thursday, April 2, 2009 - 9:07 AM

Oxford Jewish Library to Add Rare Medieval Works to Collection

The next installment of a five-figure annual grant from Toronto’s Samson Family, whose daughter studied at Oxford University, will allow the Oxford Chabad Society’s current collection of more than 3,000 volumes to expand into the realm of medieval rabbinic literature.

The goal, says Chabad of Oxford co-director Rabbi Eli Brackman, is to purchase a number of sets of responsa, the back-and-forth communications between sages and communities throughout the world detailing rulings on Jewish law.

“These collections, for instance of the Maharam M’Rotenberg,” explains Brackman, referring to the 13th century German sage, Rabbi Meir ben Baruch, &ld… Read More »

Rabbi Eli's Blog

Current issues, sermons and university news