The Hay of Seaton Lecture by Rabbi Moshe Rubin from Glasgow, was a fascinating mixture of themes. Partly it was the biography of the Jewish Community in Glasgow, from its beginnings late 18th Century with the welcome of refugees from Lithuania, Russia and Poland, expanded before World War II by the arrival of refugee Jewish children, and further enlarged by the arrival post-war of Holocaust survivors in the late 1940s. The community grew into a vibrant community, integrated with the surrounding neigbourhood, and has become a rich and enriching part of Scottish culture.
Partly it was Rabbi Moshe’s autobiography, leaving the protective ‘dome’ of Brooklyn, arriving in Manchester then Glasgow in 1990, training for the Rabbinate and becoming in 2015 Rabbi in Giffnock on Glasgow Southside.
He spoke of ‘Jewish influencers’ in Scotland, including a woman whose son had additional support needs at a time when such provision in the 80s was still in development stages. She was instrumental in the formation of resourced provision that modelled community care. The Goldberg brothers were successful department store merchants and their financial support through a Trust has enabled considerable community development within the Jewish communities in Scotland.
I was particularly interested in the explanation of ‘halakha’, the gathered wisdom of Jewish law, and the call to walk the walk of social compassion, recognising that ‘charity’ in Hebrew is semantically derived from ‘justice’. I first encountered this thinking in a Talmud class on Pirque Avot, at University in the early 1970s, taught by the formidable Alexander Brodie, one of the sharpest minds I’ve ever encountered.
It was a good evening; a genuine encounter of faith practically expressed in community cohesion, tradition cherished and passed on, and a strong sense of identity retained in the changing flux of culture and circumstance. I’m glad I went.
Photo of King’s College Chapel, Aberdeen, taken as I left.
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