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This is the website of Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, Rabbi of New North London Synagogue and Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism.

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Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg is Rabbi of New North London Synagogue and Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism. More

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Jonathan Wittenberg’s latest books including Walking With The Light, The Silence Of Dark Water and The Eternal Journey. More

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Read the latest posts, and access archived content, from Jonathan Wittenberg’s blog. More

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Latest blog posts

For Refugee Week: God sees the tears of the oppressed

Sticky PostOn June 23, 2023

While Nicky’s not been well, I’ve slept in our spare room, where we’ve often hosted guests through the excellent organisation Refugees at Home. This is Refugee Week, and Tuesday was World Refugee Day. I found a small note in that spare room last night. It was post-it size, stuck to the bedside bookshelf so that you could only see

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Kabbalah and Counting: the mystical qualities of the Omer

Sticky PostOn May 16, 2025

I remember walking across Jerusalem looking for an Omer-counter. I wanted something both beautiful and mystical. ‘Omer’ is a measure of quantity, apparently equivalent to 2.2 litres, and refers to the offering of barley harvested on the night after the first day of Passover. But it’s come to mean the period of forty-nine days which links Pesach to Shavuot,

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Beautiful Prayers from the Talmud

Sticky PostOn May 9, 2025

My Talmud class has been going for almost 40 years; it’s been a stable feature throughout my rabbinate, ‘Thursday mornings at 9.30,’ and I love it. Luckily, many of the participants love it too, and some have been there for all, or almost all, that time. As anyone who studies Talmud knows, some passages are difficult, some are intense

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In memory of my father, who died on Israel’s Independence Day, 18 years ago

Sticky PostOn April 25, 2025

It was my brother, Raphael, who thought to move our father’s bed in his dying days so that, if he was able to lift his head from his pillow, he would be able to see his beloved garden. Twice I saw him raise himself up, semi-conscious, and say the words of the daily prayer ‘mekayyem emunato - God keeps

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