Jonathan Romain @RabbiRomain Twitter profile

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Sadly, I have my son’s funeral tomorrow (he drowned on his honeymoon in a rip tide). It’s deeply painful, but as a rabbi, I know from seeing so many others suffer bereavements that, one day, we will laugh & sing again (although I must admit it doesn’t feel like that right now).

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

Justin Welby had every right to make his Easter comments (whether correct in them or not). Faith cannot be limited to talking about flower arrangements or the Sunday fete. The biblical prophets thundered against the social injustices of their time & so should modern clergy too.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Did you hear about the rabbi, vicar and imam who…didn’t go into a bar or up in a hot air balloon…but we met together, each said a prayer for peace from our own tradition, & told our congregants not import the conflict in Israel/Gaza to the UK. Let’s fight for peace together.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Many thanks for the avalanche of support from everyone - it truly is much appreciated & shows that Twitter is not just a vehicle for trolls, but there are plenty of angels there too. But apologies my end that, in my distracted state, I miswrote the funeral date (it’s tomorrow).

Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Sadly, I have my son’s funeral tomorrow (he drowned on his honeymoon in a rip tide). It’s deeply painful, but as a rabbi, I know from seeing so many others suffer bereavements that, one day, we will laugh & sing again (although I must admit it doesn’t feel like that right now).

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Last posting re. my son: he had a good funeral. You will know that there can be good ones, where the person is celebrated fully and the mourners comforted...and ones that leave you cold, or even angry at how irrelevant the service was. Some clergy training still needs improving!

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

I was approached by the BBC to discuss Zionism. The term simply means “the maintenance of a Jewish homeland”. It doesn’t refer to particular borders. It’s fine to criticise Israeli policies, & half of Israelis do, but if you are anti-Zionist, you deny that very right to exist.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

A couple from Oxford have a judicial review of #collectiveworship in schools. I am in favour of faith, but not of #faithschools . School should teach about faith as general knowledge, but not impose a belief system. Beliefs should come from home or place of worship, not the state.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Diane Abbott's ignorance about prejudice suffered by Jews is astonishing, given what she should have learnt from a) basic historical knowledge b) the Corbyn debacle c) her Hackney constituents. When does a blindspot cease to be a blindspot and become wilful malice?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

It’s been utterly humbling to hear the personal stories of so many people (in 280 words) and the many tragedies - similar & different - they have faced over the years. Life can be both so wonderful and so tough. If this is you, then from one mourner to another, I wish you well.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

11 months

Wow: “Evangelicals launch flying bishops & ring-fence funding after Synod vote on same-sex blessings “- we rabbis solved our divisions over the issue by allowing those who wished to go ahead but neither side castigating the other. Why can’t Christian be more Christian about it?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

8 months

Dear Charlotte Church: Let me translate for you - when you say “From the river to the sea” it means expelling Jews from the Jordan to the Mediterranean i.e. from the Land of Israel entirely & destroying a nation. Creating a Palestinian state should not mean eradicating Israel.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

All eyes on New Zealand as they have a referendum tomorrow on permitting assisted dying for those who are terminally ill adults, mentally competent & requesting it freely for themselves (with strict safeguards to check). Surely it’s time for our MPs to legalise it here too.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

Chief Rabbi’s attack on Corbyn is justified. Recently I wrote to all in my community urging them to vote for whichever party is best placed to defeat Labour. Sadly, normal considerations about religion & politics not mixing are superseded by the Corbyn threat to British values.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

At Maidenhead Synagogue, we’ve been studying the Gospel of Matthew. Some people objected, but it’s been highly enlightening. So important to know other faith’s holy texts, not just your own:

The Gospel and Last Supper through Jewish eyes

Jonathan Romain describes an unusual Bible study

www.churchtimes.co.uk

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Let’s be clear: anti-Israel protests are not antisemitic; but using the word ‘Jew’ in those protests is antisemitic. Protests against Israel outside a local town hall are not antisemitic; but protests outside a local synagogue are. End of story.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

All credit to the Trevelyan family for slavery reparations relating to 200 year ago, but I wonder how far back one can go. Do I sue someone because Edward 1 expelled my ancestors from England in 1290? At what point does guilt & responsibility still hold & when fade away?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Bemused that LSE is changing the names of its terms: from Easter to spring, from Christmas to winter. Harmless adaption or cultural vandalism? Jews have had no problem calling a London synagogue 'St John's Wood Synagogue'. If we obliterate history, we cannot learn from it.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

For the first time ever, I’ve used a four letter word in an article on grief and whether my son’s recent death was part of a divine masterplan. Not sure if that was wise, but it did reflect my raw feelings:

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

11 months

What a contrast! At yesterday massive rally in London against antisemitism, there were no arrests, no masked men, no slogans spreading hate - just ordinary people standing up for the right of Jews to be at ease in their country of birth. It was calm, powerful and heart-warming.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

It’s my 40th year as rabbi of Maidenhead this week. 40 is associated with wandering in the wilderness - not here! - we’ve turned Maidenhead from a Jewish backwater to the largest non-metropolitan synagogue in the UK - if you’re in the area, come & join us!

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

The response to my request for people willing to host a Ukrainian refugee has been 350+ households (& growing). I have found a structure through which to process volunteers and match them to those needing hospitality: anyone interested should go to:

Homepage - Refugees at Home

refugeesathome.org

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

This weekend is the mother of all religious trinities - Easter, Passover & Ramadan together. God must be spoilt for choice as to which services to attend, although I suspect God would be more pleased if his followers could not just pray to him but live in peace with each other.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

Rabbi @LauraJanklaus is right. Labour has never been associated with antisemitism till now, whether under left-wing Foot or right-wing Blair. Finger of blame points to Corbyn, either down to his incompetence running Labour or his connivance with anti-semites. You chose which.

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner

@LauraJanklaus

5 years

Thank you so much

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

I have always wondered how I could repay the debt I owe to the kindertransport, who saved my then 11 year old mother. Now is the time, which is why I am helping to co-ordinate Ukrainetransport.

Charles Hymas

@charleshymas

3 years

A rabbi whose mother fled Nazi Germany on the Kindertransport has founded a scheme for Britons to host refugees from Ukraine, as the UN revealed one million people have now fled the country in the face of the Russian invasion. by @GabriellaSwerl

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

I saw a video midweek by Desmond Tutu in which he backed the move to make assisted dying an option in Britain & said he wanted that right for himself. The support of one of the world’s leading religious figures blows to bits the myth that all people of faith oppose it. We don't.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

We got to 100,000 – signatures for a petition, the number needed to trigger a debate in the House of Commons on changing the law on assisted dying to permit it for those who are mentally competent, terminally ill & who wish to have it to end their suffering. It's getting closer

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

No, Emily Bridges, “genocide” is not being banned from professional female bicycle racing, it is being murdered, killed, being made dead, along with the rest of your group, be it Rohingyas, Jews or Gypsies. Misusing words means losing the argument & demeaning real genocides.

Sharron Davies MBE

@sharrond62

1 year

This is Molly they think they belong in women’s cycling! Molly should race with people with the same anatomy … otherwise it’s just cheating in plain site. Emperors new cloths! Stop staying silent on this… @UCI_cycling no parent wants their daughter in a race with this person

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

6 months

Big day, as Parliament debates if Assisted Dying should be legalised for those terminally ill, mentally competent & who wish it for themselves. Why on earth do we force dying people to stagger on for a few weeks against their will if they are suffering and want to let go gently?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Times have changed: I was the guest preacher yesterday for the Merchant Venturers’ annual service at Bristol Cathedral: a rabbi preaching in a cathedral, Hebrew ringing out where once Jews were condemned in fiery sermons. So good to live in a time of inter-faith harmony in the UK

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

All eyes on Jersey, who has voted in support of the principle of #assisteddying . This will become a Bill and may be the first British territory to permit it. Shouldn’t terminally-ill Brits on the mainland who want it, also have the same right not to suffer on? @dignityindying

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

What are the rabbi, vicar and iman doing now? - weeping at the deaths on all sides…and almost in despair that there seems no long-term solution that will avoid more violence in a few years time once the current war comes to an end. But we have to hope, even against the odds.

Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Did you hear about the rabbi, vicar and imam who…didn’t go into a bar or up in a hot air balloon…but we met together, each said a prayer for peace from our own tradition, & told our congregants not import the conflict in Israel/Gaza to the UK. Let’s fight for peace together.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Had over 400 comments (and rising) to my piece on assisted dying for the Sunday Times yesterday on having faith & being in favour of assisted dying. Most in favour, though some against. There’s a real sense of momentum to make it legal. MPs take note.

What God would want us kept alive in agony? Not mine

Some people might be surprised that a minister of religion is not only in favour of assisted dying but has just been appointed chairman of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns to make it legal in Britain

www.thetimes.com

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

Thanks to all who have greeted the birth of the Religious Alliance for Dignity in Dying. Surely it is a more religious response than those who insist terminally ill people stagger on to their last breath, even though they beg for release. Have they never heard of compassion?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

The threshold for a public petition (100,000) to secure a House of Commons debate has been wildly surpassed, so Assisted Dying will be debated on 4th July. With polls showing 84% support in favour, including amongst people of faith, let’s hope MPs reflect their constituents.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

Why is this Passover (tonight) different from all other Passovers? Families will be separated instead of together, but Reform Jews will be able to use modern technology (banned by the Orthodox) such as Zoom to link up together & have a virtual seder. I reckon God would approve.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

8 months

The Prince of Wales is saying what many British Jews feel: the Hamas attack was appalling, but the Israeli response, however justified, has involved much suffering. We regret Palestinian deaths as much as Israeli ones. Their blood, and the pain of their families, are the same.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Au revoir Chaim Topol: his Tevye the Milkman was the sort of person it would have been good to know in real life. Fiddler on the Roof captured the challenges of parental dillemmas, intermarriage, poverty, persecution, Jewish roots, but in a way that combined pathos with joy.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

I get that some people might object to assisted dying & they can decide how they wish to die when their time comes, but it is so arrogant to deny that same choice to others and insist they suffer to protect your principles. Arrogant, uncivilised & irreligious.

Sarah Wootton

@sarah_wootton

3 years

As a new bill is tabled in the House of Lords, paving the way for a debate in Parliament on the issue, Phil Newby explains why he believes terminally ill, mentally competent adults should have the right to choose when and where they die. #LastRights

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Look at me now Mum! As a penniless child refugee on the kindertransport who lived in Oxford during WW2, she’d be amazed that her son was asked to take part in its Christchurch Cathedral in a service of remembrance & reconciliation. Let’s celebrate progress when it happens.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

From the phenomenal response I’ve had to my piece below on assisted dying, it is clear that the law must be changed to help those who are dying in pain and want to let go, while relatives watch on helplessly.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

9 months

“A father’s grief one year on”. For all parents who have also lost a son or daughter, I hope that my piece in today’s Sunday Times will show some kindred thoughts or even help in some way. You are not alone, and there are many of us. Too many.

As a rabbi I thought I knew grief. Then my son died at 34

A year on from the phone call every parent fears most, Jonathan Romain reflects on what he’s learnt and why he chose not to follow the traditions of his faith

www.thetimes.com

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

Once Brexit is over, MPs must turn to the issue of assisted dying to stop yet more people either dying in pain or ending their own life horrifically as described here. Life is precious, and we have a right to die as well as possible.

Dignity in Dying

@dignityindying

5 years

“A traumatic, painful, miserable way to die.” Our broken law forced Sir Patrick Stewart’s friend into a lonely death. How many more people have to die in such a heartbreaking way before our politicians pay attention? This can't go on. Thank you for speaking out @sirpatstew

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

It’s a sad Fathers Day for those who have lost a child, be it this year or long ago; life continues, even happily, but never as happily as before:

After the Nottingham killings, a message of hope from prominent rabbi

RABBI DR JONATHAN ROMAIN: As a bereaved father, I instinctively thought of what the parents of Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar were going through.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

If the police are now querying the law on assisted dying, then it shows beyond doubt that it needs changing. Unlike MPs, they deal with the sad reality of people’s traumas and know the current situation is untenable. Time for MPs to listen to the police!

Sarah Wootton

@sarah_wootton

5 years

Thames Valley's police chief calls for an inquiry into the law on @dignityindying after his officers had to question a heartbroken widow for supporting her husband’s wish to die at Dignitas in Switzerland #CompassionIsntACrime @annwhaley12 @HawleyAlix

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

It's Christmas & Hanukkah; hopefully everyone is full of goodwill for at least today. Wouldn't it be good to extend that a few days longer, if not 364. If that sounds ridiculous (messianic?), no, the point of religion is to insist that a better version of this world is possible.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Can you be pro-Palestine & pro-Israel? Of course! That’s the two-state solution which many Israelis support. Can you be pro-Palestine & anti-Israel (ie its existence)? No, that anti-semitism, another name for racism. If you’re joining the racists, ok, but be aware of who you are

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

6 months

Astonishing that the Government has proposed abolishing the 50% cap on new faith schools (from them taking pupils of more than 50% of their own faith). The result will be to create religious ghettos, whereas we need more inclusive schooling to keep multi-faith Britain harmonious.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

Calling all MPs to remove special treatment for China in the Trades Bill next week, because of their treatment of the Uighurs. It may harm British economic interests slightly, but there comes a point when morality and values trump everything else. Didn’t we say “Never again”?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Spoke about grief yesterday on Jeremy Vine. Among the kindest gifts I received from those who “didn’t know what to say” was a giant bag of teabags & a rug knitted for curling up in at in the evenings. Both immensely practical. - scroll forward to 1.05

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Nearly everyone agrees that Israel has a right to attack Hamas. Everyone knows that Hamas embeds itself near hospitals & schools as a protective shield. Everyone condemns Israel for causing civilian casualties when it attacks Hamas. But no one suggests a solution. Difficult eh?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

11 months

Hanukkah greetings to everyone: a fun festival of food, light, family & friends, but with a serious theme of standing up for your faith (or principles) when they are challenged, not relying on others to act, but doing so yourself, & having the resilience of previous generations.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

It's about time the Vatican & other religious bodies accepted that it can be more religious to allow a terminally-ill person to let go of life if they so wish, rather than force them to suffer on against their will. It's called compassion.

Sarah Wootton

@sarah_wootton

5 years

Even Italy is discussing the need for assisted dying...despite the Pope’s protestations.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

7 months

I normally wear a white shirt and tie when taking services, but as it was Purim (sort of Jewish Mardi Gras) I dug up what I wore a few decades ago. Here’s looking at you, kid.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Corbyn barred as a Labour candidate - a welcome development for all who want a political landscape free of antisemitism. It’s a massive message to the electorate about Labour rejecting his toxic effect & that the Corbyn leadership was an aberration, not a new direction

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Great debate at Cambridge Students Union last night, where we (those in favour of legalising assisted dying as an option for the terminally ill who wish to let go of life before the pain becomes unbearable) won the debate handsomely. Cambridge has spoken, now over to MPs!

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Here’s why you can be a person of faith and also in favour of assisted dying….value life but also want to relieve people from suffering. Does your God agree?:

What God would want us kept alive in agony? Not mine

Some people might be surprised that a minister of religion is not only in favour of assisted dying but has just been appointed chairman of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns to make it legal in Britain

www.thetimes.com

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

Astonished at CofE bishops saying that gay couples should not have sex, nor should heterosexuals who are in a civil partnership - just be abstinent friends. How can otherwise sensible and kind religious people be so divorced from reality? It's daytime, not bedtime, that counts

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Last week’s news but still worth celebrating: NSW has just become the last state in Australia to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill patients who wish to have it. It will be available legally and safely in 18 months. What do they appreciate and understand that we don’t?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

It'd be unthinkable to divide children into separate religious areas when they go to a cinema, yet we allow it in school, where they are supposed to learn about tolerance and equality. Time to wake up to the message we are giving them!

Accord Coalition

@AccordCoalition

5 years

Religious discrimination by state funded faith schools is unnecessarily, unfair, divisive and diminishes the ability of their providers to be moral guides in society. Discrimination shouldn't be a part of school life and least of all in the name of religion

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Devastating report on front page of today’s Times about illegal Haredi schools. For too long we have hidden away our dirty linen rather than clean it up; this is the result and we need to ensure we put the needs of those children above all else.

Hasidic boys’ schools leave Jewish pupils barely able to read or write English

Thousands of British boys can barely read or write English aged 16, with some of them routinely beaten in unsafe schools, because the government allows a strict

www.thetimes.com

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Roe v Wade: get ready for unwanted children, back-street abortions, suicides. Abortion should not be treated lightly, and adoption is another option, but complete strangers should not take away a woman's control over her own body. Her right to choose is a sacred right.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

I never ask people if they are for/against assisted dying becoming legal in the UK. Instead, I ask: if you were dying in pain, would you want the option of an assisted death? The answer is always “yes”. So why are we denying people that option?

Dignity in Dying

@dignityindying

4 years

Our final speaker is @Dannythefink , who recently wrote this brilliant piece in The Times. "Denying the terminally ill help to end their lives will one day be considered as barbaric as refusing pain relief in childbirth." #LastRights

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

Preliminary results from New Zealand referendum on assisted dying showed over 60% of voters supported it becoming law - same terms as the legislation proposed here (only for those terminally ill, suffering & requesting it of their own free will). It's time we had that option too

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Despite the saying “An Englishman’s home is his castle” so many have opened up their homes to complete strangers from Ukraine. Scene from English lessons at Maidenhead Synagogue:

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

Masked protesters trying to get Kathleen Stock sacked from Sussex Uni for expressing her opinion on biology; anti-vax protesters turning up at Jeremy Vine’s home on Sunday morning. What happened to winning the argument instead of bullying or trying to shout loudest?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Had great fun this morning on BBC1’s Sunday Morning Live, debating “Is Britain better off without God?”. Spoiler alert: you can be very moral & happy without God, but having a faith has lots of advantages.

BBC One - Sunday Morning Live, Series 13, Episode 17

Sean Fletcher and Holly Hamilton ask whether Britain is better off without God.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Does faith help when you lose a son unexpectedly? Yes, but not in ways you’d think: for me, it’s more about community now than any hope of meeting up in the afterlife. I’ll be exploring that with others on Radio4’s Beyond Belief on Mon 3rd @ 4.30 pm. Join me or listen back after.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Allah must be weeping over what’s done in his name. There is nothing wrong in supporting Palestinian causes, but everything wrong in parading through the streets rejoicing in the savage Hamas killings of Israeli civilians - not even as collateral damage but as direct targets.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Two myths: 1. Gaza is occupied. No. It has been under total control of Hamas since 2005 when Israel withdrew from it. 2. Gaza is sealed off. No. Citizens of Gaza can come into Israel across certain checkpoints, while it also has a border with Egypt

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

Offers to my request to provide hospitality to Ukrainian refugees are now way over 500 households; it takes ages to answer the avalanche of emails as they come in; exhausting but a wonderful response to a terrible situation; I’ve linked up with

Homepage - Refugees at Home

refugeesathome.org

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

This may sound naive, but as a rabbi, I've just come across my first case of polyamory: a married man with two partners. Technically, it’s adultery, but (unlike adultery) open and consensual. So is it? But my main worry is not theory but practicality & possible power imbalances.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 months

Hurrah for Jersey: just voted to legalise assisted dying for those terminally ill (6 months or less to live), who have mental capacity & who wish to let go of a life characterised by pain or indignity. It’s their life & death and they can at last decide how to live it and end it.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

We're launching this week the Religious Alliance for Dignity in Dying – showing that it is perfectly compatible to both have a religious faith and to hold that assisted dying is an option which terminally ill people should have if they so wish.

Dying with dignity: faith leaders are out of touch on assisted dying, say followers

Faith leaders must no longer stand in the way of assisted dying, the majority of religious Britons believe. Most people of faith say it was wrong for senior rel

www.thetimes.com

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

The BBC’s Today programme reported something so unbelievable this morning that they had to reassure listeners it was true an hour later: that more USA children died in 2020 from guns than from car crashes. Roads are safer than schools! Time for parents to take on the gun lobby

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Spoke about assisted dying at a conference of Lutheran pastors from across Europe and received a warm response. 10 years ago, I would have been howled down, or not even invited to talk about it. The tide is turning among religious leaders. When will our MPs get the message?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Somewhat shattered from having 98 people in my house last night for my annual Latke Party. If you're not Jewish, haven't had a latke (potato pancake) yet, & get offered one...accept immediately. Delicious. And part of the celebrations of the festival of Hanukkah.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

What a shame this failed. It was not about legalising assisted dying, but thinking about it. And with so many people in the UK dying in pain or distress and wanting to let go earlier, we need to think about it. It's an adult conversation we need to have.

Sarah Wootton

@sarah_wootton

3 years

Narrow loss in @UKHouseofLords on @dignityindying amendment, with Government whip ensuring defeat. Closeness of vote puts Government on notice that we need a proper process for debating assisted dying legislation in Westminster. #YesToDignity

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

When we force people to do this, we have to ask: what has gone wrong with our values? Isn't it better to have regulated, monitored assisted dying, instead of desperate D-I-Y suicides?

Dignity in Dying

@dignityindying

3 years

Jane Brooker made the decision to stop eating & drinking to escape the agony of her disease. It took 20 days for her to die. Dying people deserve compassion and the opportunity to talk openly with their doctor & loved ones about their wishes, but our cruel laws stand in the way

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

I observed an important rabbinic lesson yesterday: THOU SHALT NOT PHONE ANYONE WHILE THE WIMBLEDON FINAL IS ON. Even those you least expect to watch. Some things are sacrosanct.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

8 months

2 years on Putin is still in Ukraine and the family I’m hosting are safe with me, but feeling very cut off from their homeland and son. Here’s hoping it’s a different story by the 3rd anniversary

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

At clergy launch yesterday of “Last Rights - The case for Assisted Dying” & the ability of the terminally ill to let go & avoid last weeks of pain: not shorten their life, but shorten their death. Amazing that the law still denies them that right

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

Rabbi’s joy: yesterday an 18 year old girl whose family joined the Synagogue after she was 13 and so did not have a batmitzvah - but whose younger sister did subsequently have one - felt she had missed out and did hers five years late. She also gave a fantastic sermon. Yay!

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

You may detest Government policy, but to compare them to Nazis who engaged in mass genocide misses the mark & overplays the criticism. It also demeans the unique horror of the Nazis, comparing them to a party that is not in that league at all.

LBC

@LBC

2 years

Gary Lineker has sparked fury among a number of Tory MPs after appearing to compare the Government's asylum policy to Nazi Germany. @IanpayneLBC asks: Was Lineker's outburst a step too far?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

The irony of the CofE rejection of gay marriage is that they WILL authorise it – like, women priests, it’s just a matter of time. The tragedy is that in the meantime gays feel rejected, others dismiss the Church as uncaring and the Church suffers further loss.

Madeleine Davies

@MadsDavies

2 years

‘English bishops will recommend that some "prayers for God's blessing" for gay couples in civil marriages be adopted, the BBC expects.’ Story drawing on ‘sources’ post yesterday’s College of Bishops meeting

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

As of today, some rabbis are offering wedding canopies (huppot) to mixed-faith couples. Good for them. If a mixed-faith couple want religious input at the start of their journey together, let’s help rather than hinder and give them every blessing. What do we achieve by refusing?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

Just written a piece for the British Medical Journal with George Carey highlighting that the vast majority of people of faith (82%) favour assisted dying being legalised for those terminally ill who want to opt for it. Religious opponents are a minority.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

It’s a rare religious trinity today – when Passover, Easter & Ramadan coincide. Amazing contrast of how they can all get on so badly in various parts of the world, but largely work in harmony here in the UK - religion at its worst & best. Time to shift the balance to the latter.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Attended astonishingly moving talk last night by daughter of two Holocaust survivors (Noemie Lopian) & grandson of Nazi SS officer (Derek Niemann) speaking jointly about both pain and reconciliation, with subsequent generations undoing the wrongs of the previous one.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

Just met with Ann Whaley, churchgoer who took her terminally ill husband to die in Dignitas at his request. She did so sadly & out of love, but nearly got arrested. What a trauma, and if only he’d be able to die at his own home as he’d much have preferred. Time to change the law.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

New research today on #prostatecancer : I had no symptoms at all, but took the blood test on a whim, was shocked to find I had a high level of aggressive cancer and had a life-saving operation two weeks later. So,blokes, take the test even if you think there is no need to do so.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

4 years

Exactly right! Say 'no' to assisted dying if you yourself don't want it - that's fair enough - but don't deny it to those who do. Don't terminally ill people have a right to die without unbearable pain or distress if they so wish?

Sarah Wootton

@sarah_wootton

4 years

“Let's address the elephant in the room with this whole thing, shall we? It's called the End of Life Choice. These people that are so fervently against it … they don't have to use it.” via @vice

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

3 years

It’s Passover tonight & at our service we will update the story to laud the Jewish leader Zelensky as a modern Moses saying "Let My People Go" to the modern Pharoah, Putin, while we’ll encourage the Government to plague him with as many sanctions as possible until he relents.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

Just been re-elected Vice-Chair of #DignityinDying . I have seen too many people die in excruciating pain. The sooner #assisteddeath is made legal in the UK the better for those are terminally ill, mentally competent, suffering badly and want to let go.

Sarah Wootton

@sarah_wootton

5 years

Looking forward to @dignityindying AGM today with brilliant campaigners @allythomson01 @DrJackyDavis @RabbiRomain @annwhaley12 Onwards to the next great social reform! #ActsofLove

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

11 months

One of the few benefits of Covid was the use of Zoom to bring people together…which we did last night to get dozens of Maidenhead families lighting their Hanukkiah at home to do it simultaneously, sing Moaz Tzur totally out of sync with each other and exchange festive greetings

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

I recommend this programme (Channel 4) to everyone....I'm with Pru Leith and urge the Government (or the next one) to allow assisted dying for those dying in pain who request it of their own free will. What do we achieve by denying them that right to die?

Zoe Jacobs

@zoeclairej

2 years

Just tuned into #PrueAndDannysDeathRoadTrip on @Channel4 . #AssistedDying is a conversation I've only ever skirted round - but I'm engaged and interested because I've often heard @RabbiRomain talk about it so thougtfully. Interested to see the documentary. #DifficultConversations

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

11 months

Oh Gary - you do Match of the Day so well, but are beginning to spoil it for me by some of your tweets. I don’t mind you protesting about civilian casualties in Gaza, but why didn’t you also cry out about the 1,400 Israelis killed or 140 hostages. Inconsistent or indifferent?

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

If we are going to back Ukraine, then let's do it wholeheartedly, with as much firepower as possible to help them win, not hold back nervously and thereby prolong the war. If a bully hit me at school, I was taught to hit back so hard that he does not get up to hurt you again.

Stephen Pollard

@stephenpollard

2 years

Credit to Biden for going to a Ukraine. A big deal for a US president to go to a war zone.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

5 years

I‘m still smarting that my local Windsor & Maidenhead Borough Council stopped a British-born-and-bred couple of Indian heritage from applying to adopt a white baby. Adoptive parents need to be loving and stable; that’s the only ‘colour’ that counts.

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

2 years

Two essential pre-requisites of forgiveness for anyone are admission of wrong-doing and repentance. So it all depends on whether he has he done those. Plus...it is the victims who are the prime holders of forgiveness, not us bystanders.

Craig Ferriman

@CraigFerriman

2 years

Prince Andrew should be FORGIVEN, Archbishop of Canterbury declares

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Jonathan Romain

@RabbiRomain

1 year

The decline of the Church may be due to its theology, but it leaves a big social gap, as outlined in my letter to The Times this morning

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