The Leo Baeck Centre’s House of Study (Beit Midrash) Group has a longstanding role of organising events and activities to promote and stimulate knowledge and understanding of participants. Programs of study, talks, panels and discussions are held on a wide range of subjects, from those relating directly to Torah and religious observance, to subjects of interest to members of LBC and the Progressive community, including our place in, and interactions with, the wider community.
The House of Study Group coordinates a number of other LBC events in line with these interests, such as LBCinema, details of which are elsewhere on this website.
Three longstanding annual events are:
- The Leo Baeck Lecture, which has often been held as part of the Kew Festival (http://kewfestival.org/), usually features a guest speaker with a high public profile.
- A dinner to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut is held at a restaurant featuring food of a country or culture where Jews have lived. We recognise that Jews from many diverse countries and cultures have settled in Israel, and while enjoying the food of another country, we learn the history of that country’s Jewish community, and its members’ history with Israel.
- The Shavuot tikkun is an evening of study lasting from the end of the service on erev Shavuot until late, with talks by LBC members on topics of interest and relating to the LBC theme for that year.
LBC House of Study Group welcomes suggestions from the LBC community for future topics, speakers or events.