Limmud: a great Jewish alternative to Christmas

Limmud: a great Jewish alternative to Christmas
Somewhere between a retreat and a festival, the Limmud conference shows how Judaism can remain creative and vibrant

Keith Kahn-Harris
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday 29 December 2010 16.56 GMT

For the diaspora Jew, what to do over Christmas can be a taxing question. It's almost impossible to ignore the festival completely and it's a wonderful opportunity for rest and relaxation with family and friends. But how to avoid being compromised by the Christian connotations?

For a truly Jewish alternative to Christmas, the Limmud conference is as good as it gets. Taking place every year between Christmas and new year, this year's festive season sees Limmud's 30th anniversary conference, held at the University of Warwick. As much of UK stumbles tipsily between leftover turkey and the sales, 2,500 Jews of all ages from the UK and throughout the Jewish world will gather for a frenetic five-day festival of learning and playing.


Limmud is hard to describe: it's a cross between a retreat, an adult education institute, the Hay Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe, with a touch of Burning Man thrown in. It is best understood as a unique model of how to build a short-lived community. Limmud is based around participation: it is run almost entirely by volunteers and it provides the space for people to contribute in whatever way they can. Within reason, anyone can lead a session at Limmud and although there are some invited speakers and performers, there are few divisions between presenters and audience – there is no green room, everyone eats the same food and titles are not given on name badges.

This democratic, participatory structure results in an incredibly diverse programme. Sessions run from early morning to late at night and at any one time there may be up to 30 sessions going on concurrently. These can include everything from intensive Jewish text study sessions, to discussions and debates on contemporary Jewish issues, to lectures on Israeli current events, to interfaith dialogue sessions, to films, theatre, comedy and music – all with a Jewish theme. The heavy Jewish emphasis is leavened with DJ sessions, pub quizzes and this year a Strictly Come Dancing competition. Then there is the socialising and partying, which while it is rarely alcohol fuelled (there is a bar but Jews tend not to be big drinkers) is no less energetic for that.

Part of Limmud's strength is its diversity. There is a creche, children's and teenage programmes and the event is truly intergenerational. Just as importantly, Limmud works strenuously to avoid the denominational conflicts that scar the Jewish world. The food is kosher and space is provided for those who wish to conduct services, but there is no compunction to practice or believe in any way. Anyone can offer a session but no one is forced to listen to anything. Limmud is one of the few spaces in which leaders of organisations as diverse as the rightwing Zionist NGO Monitor and the leftist Israeli Breaking The Silence can both offer their points of view. Orthodox, reform and secular Jews can and do participate equally. It is true that UK Orthodox rabbinic participation is low, due to official disapproval from some Orthodox rabbinic authorities, but prominent Orthodox rabbis from outside the UK do attend.

It is no exaggeration to argue that over its 30-year existence, Limmud has changed the UK Jewish community. It has created an appetite for Jewish learning and Jewish arts and culture that has had knock-on effects throughout the community. It has nurtured and empowered a generation of young activists that are not satisfied with the self-satisfied anti-intellectualism and philistinism that Anglo-Jewry has often been known for. These activists are impatient with the disabling divisions perpetuated by Jewish denominations and community leaders.

Over the last few years, Limmud has outgrown its winter conference: there are now day Limmuds in various UK communities, a summer Limmud Fest with a more relaxed vibe and Limmud conferences in 20 countries. Limmud is in short, a Jewish good-news story, a demonstration that Judaism – however it is defined – can remain creative and vibrant.

The Limmud model needs to become well known outside the Jewish world, not as a form of boasting but as a demonstration of what is possible: it is possible to motivate large numbers of people to study, it is possible to empower ordinary people to do extraordinary things, it is possible to create a harmonious space in a divided community. Limmud has to break out of its Christmas seclusion and show how the wider world can benefit from a Jewish experiment.

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