Limmud 2025 launches - The Jewish Chronicle

Limmud 2025 has launched, and once again, thousands of participants, speakers and volunteers are expected to join the world-famous cross-communal Jewish festival in December.

The programme, which typically boasts a choice of hundreds educational, cultural and creative sessions across four days, as well as a Shabbat programme, has already started to sign up an impressive roster of speakers. These include American historian Deborah Lipstadt, famous for winning the libel case against David Irving. Her presence at Limmud will mark 25 years since Irving took her to court for accusing him of Holocaust denial.

Other well-known names include South African comedian, actor and author Nik Rabinowitz, who has featured on Mock the Week, and Yiscah Smith, author, spiritual activist and educator from the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem. More speakers will be shared in the run-up to the festival.

Co-chair Jake Berger told the JC that Limmud would be “a celebration of the best of the Jewish community and the potential it has. The past couple of years have been a really challenging time for everyone, and Limmud is a place to engage with issues and celebrate Jewish joy in a safe environment.”

Sarah Rose, his co-chair, added that what defined Limmud was that “people can be their full Jewish self and not tone down any element of their Jewish identity”.

Limmud co-chairs Jake Berger and Sarah Rose[Missing Credit]

Rather than have a theme at the volunteer-led festival, the chairs said that they would be focusing on four key elements – a strong team culture among organisers and volunteers; Limmud’s values of learning, respect and “arguments for the sake of heaven”; strengthening of international participation while being “very much made in the UK”, and “an excellent experience” for participants of all ages, who bring with them a vast range of views.

Expanding on the latter, Berger, a previous programming co-chair and a member of the executive committee, said: “We have tried very hard to learn from the feedback from previous years. In the past, programming has been led by people in their 20s and 30s, but this year, our programming chairs are across the age demographic, and we are trying to create a programme which caters to everyone’s needs and reflects the diversity of opinion found among 1,800 participants.”

Asked about the role Limmud could play in a community, which, in recent months, has seen increasing polarisation over Israel and the war in Gaza, Berger said that Limmud “can offer an antidote to that. It brings people together with a range of views, but it’s a place to engage with other opinions with sensitivity and curiosity. Limmud creates touch points for people to have and hear different conversations.”

Rose, who works at the BNJC, Brighton’s Jewish community hub, added that Limmud provided “a unique quirkiness that is different to what people experience at their usual Jewish communal events. There is an energy and excitement that comes with Limmud, and presenters and ideas which you just can’t access at other Jewish events.”

Limmud runs from December 26-31. To sign up, click here or go to: https://limmud.org/festival/

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Limmud

Limmud 2025