The Honey and The Sting
By Rabbi Walter Rothschild, Rabbi in Residence for Beit Polska
The Polish translation of Rabbi Walter Rothschild’s “The Honey and The Sting” will serve as a key educational tool for generations of people seeking authoritative and clear messages about Judaism. This book will be used in our Step by Step Jewish educational program in Poland. And in fact, its potential audience is much larger. We have inquiries from high school teachers and others throughout the Serbo-Croatian language communities for contemporary presentations of Judaism.
This project is estimated to cost $36,000. Please support Friends of Jewish Renewal in Poland/Beit Polska towards this innovative project to spread Jewish perspectives to a section of the world that strongly desires a strengthening of Jewish knowledge.
The title comes from a song by the Israeli composer and singer Naomi Shemer who refers to the fact that so many subjects have both a sweet and a bitter side. And yet she prays, “al kol eyle,” it all belongs together. Both the honey and the sting come from the same creature. Both the sweeter and the bitter parts of Jewish experience come from the same Creator. The intention – which has been borne out by those who have read the English and the German versions – is that a person who reads and learns from this book in Polish will also acquire this more balanced perspective, not naively optimistic, not depressively pessimistic, but with a touch of both.
Rabbi Walter Rothschild’s book, “The Honey and The Sting” addresses Judaism from a European Progressive-Jewish perspective. He presents information on practical Jewish life, history, holidays and culture in an engaging and straightforward manner. In addition, he seeks to explore issues that other books may not comment on such as, “What do the life-cycle rituals mean for us today? How does the liturgy work and where/why/how/by whom has it been changed? How do congregations really work? How should we relate to other monotheistic and diverse religions?”
Colleagues across several movements have agreed to join in supporting this publication effort. Our Campaign Goal is to Raise $36,000. We will honor the donors who provide a minimum donation of $500 in the opening pages of the book and on our website, and will present the donors contributing at least $1,000 with a special additional recognition. The donations can be made individually or by a group of not more than four people.
Rabbi Walter Rothschild
Rabbi Dr. Rothschild was born in Bradford, England in 1954 and grew up in a small provincial Reform synagogue with strong Western and Central European influences due to the refugees who had settled there. He studied Theology and Pedagogics at Cambridge University and later rabbinics at Leo Baeck College, London. He worked as a Rabbi in the North of England for eleven years, then in Austria and Central Europe, plus a year in Aruba in the Caribbean! (He speaks Dutch). Since 1998 he has lived in Berlin, serving first the main ‘Einheitsgemeinde’ then smaller liberal communities simultaneously in Halle, München, Köln, Freiburg and in Schleswig-Holstein, as well as ‘Or Chadasch’ in Vienna. For two years he was a Board member of the Union of Progressive Jews in Germany. He is a member of the CCAR and the European Rabbinic Association. He has worked extensively with the European Beit Din in several countries including Slovakia, Poland, Macedonia and Serbia. He is an author, poet, song-writer, historian, cabarettist, translator, and the editor and publisher of a quarterly magazine and father of three adult children. www.walterrothschild.de