Thursday, December 30, 2004

Limmud gets racy

Ha'aretz has a totally bizarre report on Limmud, Britain's annual 5-day 'festival of Jewish learning' which concludes today. Bizarre, because although Limmud is supposed to be leaning liberal, from Ha'aretz's description it comes across as a total sex-fest. You'd never know there were more than 750 sessions led by some of the leading activists, academics, media personalities and religious figures in the world. In Ha'aretz's account, the sessions seem to range from discussions of anal sex to talks about how to discuss sex with your children. Heck, this is how they describe the "hundreds" (actually, 1,800) of Jewish participants:
"adults and youngsters, men and women, Orthodox, Reform and secular, emphatically modest and astoundingly sexy..."
'Astoundingly sexy'? Are these Brits we're talking about? (Just kidding....) Since when is 'modest' the polar opposite of 'sexy'? And is Ha'aretz a broadsheet or a tabloid?
In any case, if there are any Bloghead readers out there who went to Limmud, we want to hear from you. Was this year a success? Who were the really good speakers? Drop us a line!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I went to Limmud in Nottingham and met some great people-many of whom I will see before the next Conference and will be in touch with longer into the future as well. Most of the 2000 Jews there did not go to meet someone sexy but went to be part of the atmosphere of learning and great friendship that abounds within the venue. The fact that Limmud events from small concerts to massive conferences sell rapidly and that the Jewish Chronicle in the UK devote a full page to it is a tribute in itself and probably a more accurate account of what Limmud is REALLY about.