Yesterday morning, 2,000 people checked into the halls of residence of Warwick University, England joining the 500 participants who have already spent Christmas Day away from festivities and in a Shabbat atmosphere instead. Participants have been arriving, weather conditions permitting, from all over the world. Limmud has now been exported to almost 50 communities across teh world and that international diversity has been represented in the queues for registration, which have been filled with almost as many Americans, Israelis, Canadians, French, Hungarians, Poles and other far flung individuals, as it has been by home grown British Jews.
Presenters too have come from far and wide - often citing the diverse, inquistive, lively Limmud audiences as a highlight of their Conference seasons. This year Conference is looking forward to David Saperstein from the US and Italian Demographer Sergio DellaPergola amongst the highlights. Designated in Newsweek’s 2009 list as the most influential rabbi in the U.S. and described in a Washington Post profile as "the quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill," David Saperstein represents the national Reform Jewish Movement to Congress. In 2009 he was appointed by President Obama as a member of the first White House Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Sergio DellaPergola is the Shlomo Argov Professor of Israel Diaspora Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an internationally known expert on Jewish demography.
Also joining us from Israel are former Eurvision star Kobi Oz and Yair Sheleg of the Israel Democracy Institute.
The past couple of nights have seen some of the Conference musicians take advantage of the lower key atmosphere at the start of Conference to test some more acoustic offerings. Naomi Less, performer and host of www.jewishchicksrock.com, led Conference in a musical Havdala service in the ampitheatre outside. The session included dancing and lighting giant lanterns that were allowed to float off into the nights sky to culminate the service. American pop songstress, Michelle Citrin, famous for her YouTube following for such hits as 'I Gotta Love Rosh Hashana' and '20 Things to Do with Matza' performed some acoustic versions of her more soulful tunes. On Friday night, the New York based Hip Hop duo,Darshan hosted an oneg mixing original niggunim with some freestyle rap.
But despite all this late night revelling, it didn't stop Conference waking up early Sunday morning, with a full day of learning kicking in. Already yesterday participants have been exposed to presentations and workshops covering topics as varied as Politcal Cartooning in the Middle East, Reiki's Role in Judaism, Talmudic Responses to Tyranny, and Adventures in Tikkun Olam. For the more artisitc amongst us, there's been opportunities to try your hand at Jewish Origami and Henna Body Art.
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