SBJC - South Bucks Jewish Community

19/12/2025

The movement for Progressive Judaism organised an interfaith Chanukah lighting as an opportunity to show solidarity across faiths.

15/12/2025

Rabbi Janes was interviewed this morning on the BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks about the impact of attack on the Jewish community in Sydney on the first night of Chanukah and asked to reflect on how it was affecting us locally.

You can listen again here (from about 2:42)

Miles is here with trusted local news, information and advice plus Make A Difference.

14/12/2025

Today has been extraordinarily difficult day for the Jewish people as we woke to the news in Sydney and the terrible attack against the Jewish community. We pray for those killed, the injured and their families and friends. As a community we held one another and lit our candles for Chanukah, knowing that the light would be brighter and our spirit stronger together, banishing the darkness to replace it with hope.

11/10/2025

We were joined by Imam Monawar Hussain MBE, Rabbi Charley Baginsky, Cllr Steve Broadbent, Emma Reynolds MP, Greg Smith MP, Arif Hussain, Dr Arshad jarral, Laura Kyrke-Smith MP and Sarah Green MP (not pictured) to celebrate Sukkot in the grounds of St Peter's Church in Berkhamsted.

23/09/2025

Wishing everyone a sweet new year! 🍎

Shana Tovah

21/09/2025

Listen to Rabbi Neil on BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks radio this morning with Kady Braine talking about Rosh Hashanah this year.

About 41 minutes in from the start of the show.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002jcy7

Liberal Judaism

Join Kady for a relaxed and spiritual start to your Sunday.

18/09/2025

Rosh Hashanah cards: continuing a hundreds of years old tradition to send greetings, made by our young people. Some sent to our twin community in Tel Aviv, Kehilat Halev, and some given to family and friends.
May this year be a sweet and good year of peace and hope (roughly translated).

11/05/2025

Children in the community have been learning about tallit and tzitzit, including learning how to tie the knots and decorating fabric.

08/05/2025

Rabbi Neil Janes and members of SBJC were part of the remembrance and celebration of VE Day in Berkhamsted. Thank you to the local Royal British Legion for organising such a special event.

08/05/2025

Rabbi Neil Janes has been invited to attend the beacon lighting ceremony this evening in Berkhamsted. Please join the community in commemorating this moment in our national memory as we remember and give thanks.

Rabbi Israel Mattuck in his sermon in 1945 wrote in the thanksgiving service at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue after VE Day had been declared:

"In relation to the past, then, the victory means a great salvation. It saved Britain and the British Empire from a great peril, perhaps the gravest in their history; it saved humanity from servitude to a dark power; it saved from destruction the ideals of democracy, freedom and human rights which have given our incomplete civilisation its beauty and its hope. And it saved the Jews from the murderous intention of a mighty foe. All that, and more, the victory means because it brought to an end and complete destruction the power of the N***s with the blight it has for more than a decade laid on the life of humanity. But what about the future?..."

(As reproduced in the book, "Agony in the Pulpit" by Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein)