Our special guest for Yom Kippur is Rabbi Walter Homolka, Rector of the Abraham Geiger College for the training of rabbis and Professor of Jewish Studies at Potsdam University in Germany. Rabbi Homolka studied in Munich, London, Lampeter and Leipzig and holds a PhD from King's College London. In September 2006, as the leader of Germany’s only rabbinical seminary, Rabbi Homolka ordained the first three rabbis in Germany since the Holocaust at the New Synagogue of Dresden. Rabbi Homolka is chairman of the Leo Baeck Foundation and an executive board member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In 2007, he established the Jewish Institute of Cantorial Arts, of which he is the president. A member of the French Legion of Honour, he is widely published internationally and holds a variety of distinctions, including a “Doctor Humanarum Litterarum” (honoris causa) from The Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion.
Our special Yom Kippur discussion focuses on the relation between Yom Kippur and Tisha B’Av, on God as a source of forgiveness, and on the different mindsets that lead us to ask for atonement.
Gmar Chatima Tova!
