IDAN RAICHEL
AND OTHER LIMMUD MUST-DOS
WHILE LIMMUD resists the very idea of headline acts, one speaker is bound to attract special attention this year.
It proved a good time for the Birmingham-based festival to invite local MP Jess Phillips, who is tipped as one of the contenders to succeed Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.
She will be reviewing the prospects for reconciliation between the party and the Jewish community with Labour colleague and Limmud returnee Wes Streeting.
Those eager to lap up more post-election analysis can hear an alternative voice in Lance Forman, the briefly Brexit Party MEP who resigned the whip to support the Tories.
For some, the five-day festival, which starts on Sunday, will come as a welcome escape from the politics that have dominated Britain in recent months.
From krav maga to kabbalah, from Yiddish to yoga, the programme will be as varied as ever and, a barometer of the times, reflect social questions such as the position of transgender Jews and the mental health of young people.
Even if King Solomon professed there was nothing new under the sun, Limmudniks will beg to differ and believe that every one of the anticipated 2,400 participants should be able to find some novel takes on Jewish life among the 1,000-odd sessions.
For some, the festival will be a welcome escape from politics
One talk on the plan for a cross-communal mikveh in North-West London is due to take place in the swimming pool.
Among guests from Israel, the first Ethiopian-born woman in the Knesset, Pnina Tamano-Shata, a Yesh Atid MK, will relate her story, beginning in a village in Africa, while one of the country’s best-known musical performers Idan Raichel will play there for the first time.