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| Ramon Tasat - News & Reviews |
| Limmud was the 'best ever' |
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Limmud was the 'best ever' 03/01/2008 By Rachel Fletcher Limmud Conference 2007 broke records this year, with more than 2,500 participants, ranging in age from two months old to the veteran journalist, Ruth Gruber, now an elegant 96. More than 350 presenters offered hundreds of sessions on almost every aspect of the Jewish experience, from hard-edged politics - the former Jewish Agency chairman Avram Burg and the Zionist writer and translator Hillel Halkin - to advice for young Jewish entrepreneurs. A series of sessions held by Hebrew University senior researcher and Indian Jews expert Shalva Weil, "The Mystery of the Ten Lost Tribes" spilled out into the hall. Ruth Gruber's session, jointly presented with Barbara Ribakov Gordon, founder and director of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, helped to launch the veteran journalist's latest book, Witness, in which she writes about some of the historic Jewish events she has seen, from the survivors of the death camps to the covert emigration of Ethiopian Jews in 1984. Though the event began life as an educational conference, its long-term creative tradition made the corridors and coffee bars of Warwick University campus, where Limmud was held for the first time, ring with music, dance, drama and talk. A production of Fiddler on the Roof, directed by Elena Markham, was put together in just three days; London-based artist and filmmaker Elliott Tucker held several workshops and also invited people to paint a mural. Limmudniks were also treated throughout conference and at Wednesday night's closing gala to performances from many musicians, including Craig Taubman and Maryland-based Ramón Tasat. Ron Prosor held a session on Monday morning and became the first Israeli ambassador to attend Limmud, while Ruth Messinger, head of the American Jewish World Service, and Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, led sessions in Warwick and also spoke at Nottingham's Beth Shalom Holocaust Centre in Nottingham. Limmud's executive director, Raymond Simonson, said: "It was the best Limmud ever. It was the first time Warwick has opened over Christmas. [Limmud conference 2007 chair] Kevin Sefton and his team worked very hard to show them Limmud is volunteer-run but very professional. "The university had read about Limmud in the press and realised it was a prestigious international educational event. Their staff were fantastic, working over Christmas for the first time. "Nottingham was Limmud's home for a long time, but we are in a new period of growth. Limmud moved because of growth, the use of different facilities such as the whole students' union building. Kevin and his team had the desire to say they didn't want just to be comfortable, that Limmud is not just an event but the creation of a community". Next year, he said, would be "one of the busiest of Limmud's regional calendars". Two new one-day conferences are already in the pipeline, in Liverpool and Hackney, East London. The latter already has David Schneider and Howard Jacobson lined up. Conference organisers responded swiftly after around three dozen people were taken ill with a suspected airborne winter virus causing vomiting and diarrhoea. At least one person was taken to hospital by ambulance. Local health authorities, the university and local hospital were informed, and a meeting was held of health professionals attending the conference. Cleaning was increased in communal areas and advice, including the local NHS Trust number, was given out. By Thursday morning everyone had recovered. |
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