Lucy Cavendish College

My dear Friends

In 1992 I had the privilege of graduating in Hebrew from the University of Cambridge. It took me four years and was hard work but worth it in the end.

Cambridge is a collegiate system and the college which had accepted me was Lucy Cavendish, a small college fro mature women students which had been founded only thirty years previously. This choice of college was to prove a bonus and a blessing for many reasons.

I was thirty seven when I started studying again-Lucy takes women from age 21 until you are in your nineties! So I felt completely supported and surrounded by like-minded women from all different backgrounds. My fellow students were studying law, Chinese, Japanese and many other subjects.

I was blessed with two Directors of Studies-the late Carmen Blacker, whose subject was Japanese and Michael Loewe, a scholar in Chinese from a distinguished Jewish background.

It is the sense of community which is exceptional in Lucy Cavendish. Going to lunch is a very pleasant experience and you can meet all kinds of people. I still go there after all these years, and occasionally go to formal hall and take a guest.

Dr Renfrew was appointed as my personal tutor in the early days and she is still a friend and a mentor. Lucy is the kind of place where you make friends for life.

On the date of the publication of my new book Where the Woods meet the Water , the continuation of my life story and covering the years between 1999 and 2009, I am giving a little launch. What better place than Lucy Cavendish? I will sing and speak in the old dining hall to a gathering of friends.

The place will remind me of many happy memories and hopefully inspire me. I am happily working towards this day, in a few months time.

Talk to you soon, have a great summer
Shalom from Gila

The Sabbath

My dear Friends

Lovely to talk to you again. Today in my childhood I would have celebrated the Sabbath-a day in the Jewish calendar of complete rest. We were taken as children to the synagogue, where we prayed and sang and as a child , very small ,my father would tuck in me in to his box, where only the men were, to be beside him in the liturgy which I loved.

My father was asked to participate a lot and sing the portion of the prophets which followed the reading of the Law or Torah.

After the lovely service, we went home and a nice lunch-usually chicken soup, and rested for the rest of the day. My mother and I were rather unusual. in that we listened to the radio in different rooms and compared notes.

It is a day for listening to the voice of the Creator in a special way and to be together as a family, so round the table for afternoon tea we had friends and visitors.