A Rocky Road - Memoirs

Abraham Levy, Simon Rocker

Publisher: Halban

Summary

Born into the 300-year-old Jewish community in Gibraltar, Abraham Levy spent his early years, which coincided with the Second World War, on the island of Madeira before returning to "The Rock". There the family remained secure within a relatively observant community. By the age of eight he was attending synagogue for shacharit, or morning prayer, before school and became known as "the religious boy". He was determined to be a rabbi. Abraham Levy first went to a convent school, then a Jewish school, followed by a year with the Christian Brothers, before arriving at Carmel College in England. From the age of thirteen he spent some school holidays in Maida Vale and began to attend Lauderdale Road Synagogue. He went on to study for the rabbinate at Jews' College and, after receiving his Rabbinical Diploma, Lauderdale Road was to be the base for his work for almost sixty years.
Over those many years, Abraham Levy, as Spiritual Head of the Sephardim in the United Kingdom, has had enormous influence on Jewish life. His deep sense of moderation, tolerance and reason have been consistent throughout his tenure and have brought him into contact both with leaders of different faiths and of the secular world alike. None the less, he has always held the view that each individual in the community is important and, to ensure a future for that community, the young have been central to his energies. He has been responsible for the expansion of a small but prominent Sephardi community in the UK and, crucially, the establishment of the Naima Jewish Preparatory School in London.
Abraham Levy's deep faith and rare personal qualities were to bring about a remarkable gathering of leaders of the different sections of Anglo-Jewry: the ultra-Orthodox, Orthodox and Progressive movements attended a service to mark 350 years since the readmission of Jews to the UK. The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, also attended and said: "... As the oldest minority faith community in this country, you show how identity through faith can be combined with a deep loyalty for our nation." But for Rabbi Levy the words that moved him most came from four children from the Naima JPS each of whom read a poem they had composed for the day. Abraham Levy's memoir is a testimony to a devotion to public life, to the community, and to the young in an increasingly secular and conflicted world.

Available since: 09/14/2017.

Print length: 256 pages.

Other books that might interest you

The Paris Girl - The Young Woman...

Francelle Bradford White

Andrée Griotteray was nineteen when the Germans invaded France and occupied Paris, where she worked as a clerk in the passport office. When her younger brother, Alain, created a resistance network named Orion, Andrée joined his efforts, secretly typing up and printing copies of an underground newspaper, and stealing ID cards which allowed scores of Jewish citizens to escape persecution. 
 
 
 
Charming and pretty, Andrée nimbly avoided the unwanted attentions of German officers, even as she secretly began working as an undercover courier. Displaying fearlessness in the face of immense pressure, she traveled throughout the county delivering vital intelligence destined for France's allies—until the day she was betrayed and arrested. Throughout her ordeal, Andrée stayed composed, refusing to inform on her comrades. Before she was set free, she even duped her interrogators into revealing who had betrayed Orion, and continued her underground activities until France's liberation. 
 
 
 
Weaving in diary entries, letters, and conversations, Andrée's daughter, Francelle, brings a uniquely personal slant to her mother's story. The Paris Girl reveals the narrow escapes and moments of terror, the daily acts of bravery and defiance, and the extraordinary courage displayed by Andrée and so many of her contemporaries, that helped turned the tide of war.

Show book

Night Stalks the Mansion - A...

Constance Westbie, Harold Cameron

Back by popular demand, a supernatural detective story revealing the true account of a house haunted by ghosts lingering after a nineteenth century murder.   This true story recounts a Philadelphia family’s encounter with a spectral presence in their eighteenth-century mansion. After experiencing footsteps at night, opening doors, strange sounds and activity that centered around the library, the Cameron family investigates, unearthing the mansion's tragic past and changing their beliefs about the supernatural world.

Show book

The Gray Earth - A Novel

Galsan Tschinag

The acclaimed Mongolian author of The Blue Sky continues his autobiographical trilogy as a young shepherd leaves his ancestral home for boarding school. 
 
This powerful, sweeping novel continues the saga of Dshurukawaa, the Tuvan shepherd boy introduced in The Blue Sky. Torn between the onset of visions and pressure from his family to attend a state boarding school, the adolescent attempts to mediate the pull of spirituality and pragmatism, old ways and new. 
 
Taken from his ancestral home, he reunites with his siblings at a boarding school, where his brother also serves as principal. Soon he comes to understand that the main purpose of the school is to strip the Tuvans of their language and traditions, and to make them conform to party ideals. When tragedy strikes, Dshurukawaa begins to sense the larger import of his visions, and with it a possible escape. 
 
Tschinag’s lyrical language, his striking characterizations, and his evocation of a singular way of life make The Gray Earth an unforgettable read and a worthy follow-up to The Blue Sky.

Show book

Bottled - A Mom's Guide to Early...

Dana Bowman

An unflinching and hilarious memoir about recovery as a mother of young kids, Bottled explains the perils moms face with drinking and chronicles the author's path to recovery, from hitting bottom to the months of early sobriety—a blur of pain and chaos—to her now (in)frequent moments of peace. 
 
  
 
Punctuated by potent, laugh-out-loud sarcasm, Bottled offers practical suggestions on how to be a sober, present-in-the-moment mom, one day at a time, and provides much needed levity on an issue too often treated with deadly seriousness.

Show book

Cochise: The Life and Legacy of...

Editors Charles River

Among all the Native American tribes, the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans learned the hard way that the warriors of the Apache were perhaps the fiercest in North America. Based in the Southwest, the Apache fought all three in Mexico and the American Southwest, engaging in seasonal raids for so many centuries that the Apache struck fear into the hearts of all their neighbors. 
	What is reliably documented about Cochise is that the violence he participated in during the 1860 and 1870s was preceded by years of attempted peaceful negotiations with the intruding settlers. His approach to compromise resulted in a portion of the Butterfield Overland Mail route to cross a portion of territory in which his group was dominant. He sought peace with compromise and diplomacy, and as a result of his diplomacy and his fearlessness in battle, he became the leader of the Chokonenband of the Chiricahua Apache. While most often referred to as “Chief,” the word is not in the Apache language - he was the leader, and the Apache culture demanded he would remain so until another warrior proved superior.  
	As diplomacy became more difficult, Cochise became more pressured in the defense of his territory in southeast Arizona. Reared in the nomadic Apache lifestyle and the cultural trait of raiding, Cochise turned his primary targets away from the hated Mexicans south of the border to intruding Anglos north of the borderlands. The name Cochise became so widely known throughout Arizona Territory that it became indiscriminately linked with all depredations both large and small. It was, in fact, an unfair linkage of Cochise to the abduction of a young boy and the subsequent confrontation between him and an Army lieutenant named “Bascom'' that secured both their names in Arizona history and launched the Apache Wars, a series of conflicts that lasted long after Cochise’s death.

Show book

Richard the Lionheart - The...

Kelly Mass

Richard I ruled as King of England from 1189 to 1199. He also governed as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine, and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and also being ruler of Brittany at different periods. He was the 3rd of 5 sons of King Henry II of England and Eleanor of Aquitaine, and he appeared not likely to prosper his dad as king, but all of his brothers had passed away before him, other than the youngest, John.Just because of his track record as a prominent army leader and fighter, Richard is called Richard Cur de Lion (Norman French: Le quor de lion) or Richard the Lionheart. Richard Oc-e-Non (Occitan for Yes and No) was a label given to him by troubadour Bertran de Born, probably simply because of his terseness.Richard had taken management of his own army by the age of 16, putting down disobediences in Poitou against his dad.Richard was a key Christian leader throughout the Third Crusade, commanding the project after Philip II of France's departure and winning substantial successes over Saladin, his Muslim equivalent, while signing a peace treaty and ending the fight without retaking Jerusalem.In this book, we will learn more about his life and his motivations.

Show book