EVENTS

ONLINE KOL NIDRE 20206

Dear friends,

As Yom Kippur begins this year, we invite you to join Humanistic Judaism UK with Spinoza Havurah for our Kol Nidre service at British time 6pm— an evening that holds the traditional chant and the deep questions of the Day of Atonement, without asking you to believe anything you don’t.

We’ll light candles to open the evening, chant the Kol Nidre itself, move through the Ashamnu and Al Ḥet confessions, and make space for real silence along the way — not as a wellness exercise, but as this tradition’s own practice of turning honestly toward ourselves and each other. It’s a service about teshuvá: not erasing the past, but recognising what serves life and choosing to turn toward it again.

Come as you are, whether this is your first High Holy Days service or your fortieth. All are welcome — Humanistic, Liberal, Questioning, Jew-ish and Secular Jews, interfaith families, and anyone curious about Kol Nidre without the theology.

When: Sunday, September 20th, 6:00pm BST

Cost: donation which goes to support our community in making our events more accessible and consistent for all.

We hope to see you there.

Our ROSH HASHANAH SEDER 2026

SHABBAT MAHAR HODESH: David and Jonathan: The Textually Explicit Version.

Saturday 16th May | 3pm London

We had a very special session yesterday about David & Jonathan’s “friendship,” and were delighted to be joined by Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg from Bina The Jewish Movement for Social Change https://www.bina.org.il/en/

It has long been debated whether the relationship between David and Jonathan was one of deep friendship or something more. But forget the debate — what does the text itself actually say?

Join us for an uncensored close reading of one of the Bible’s most intimate relationships, exploring what is hiding in plain sight across the pages of Samuel. We’ll dive into the story’s explicit and implicit sexuality, following the narrative wherever it leads — no apologetics, no evasions, no fig leaves.

This service contains explicit intertextuality, transtextuality, homotextuality, and other forms of advanced textual activity. Reader discretion is advised.

Our guide through this sacred and scandalous terrain is Elliot Vaisrub Glassenberg, queer Jewish educator-activist and senior educator at BINA: The Home of Israeli Judaism. With master’s degrees in both Jewish Education and Jewish Literature from the Jewish Theological Seminary, affiliate faculty standing at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and years of experience teaching at the intersection of Judaism and human rights, Elliot brings rigorous scholarship, wit, and fearless curiosity to every text he touches. He joins us from Jaffa, Israel.

Come ready to read, question, and maybe blush a little

Saturday 16th May | 3pm London