Julia Neuberger

Julia Neuberger

Chair, Commission on the Future of Volunteering in England

Baroness Julia Neuberger is an ordained rabbi and member of Britian's House of Lords. The "On Faith" panelist also is a trustee of the British Council, Jewish Care, and the Booker Prize Foundation, as well as founding trustee of the Walter and Liesel Schwab Charitable Trust. She has served as Chairman of Camden & Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust and Chief Executive of the King's Fund—a major independent health charity. Currently she chairs the Commission on the Future of Volunteering in England . In the House of Lords, she is a Liberal Democrat member and in early 2006 she was Bloomberg Professor at Harvard University Divinity School . Neuberger writes, speaks, makes trouble, and has published several books, of which the latest is The Moral State We're In (2006). She is working on a book about old age, and thinking about a new book on death and dying, as well as one as a counterblast to Richard Dawkins on why religion is so important in the rather godless United Kingdom. Close.

Julia Neuberger

Chair, Commission on the Future of Volunteering in England

Baroness Julia Neuberger is an ordained rabbi and member of Britian's House of Lords. The "On Faith" panelist also is a trustee of the British Council, Jewish Care, and the Booker Prize Foundation, as well as founding trustee of the Walter and Liesel Schwab Charitable Trust. more »

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A Grandmother's Last Lesson

My most formative religious experience was being with my grandmother the day before she died.

It was Passover, and we had a tiny seder- the passover meal- at her bedside in her dining room (she could not go upstairs to bed any more) with just my parents and me and her.

She drifted in and out of consciousness, but she was very clear that she was going to meet her maker, and that she felt calm and resolute, and that observing the last Passover for her was really important. She felt the symbol of the journey to freedom from slavery encapsulated her life's work working with refugees from Nazi Germany and beyond.

She was a remarkable woman and a great influence generally, but being with her so close to
death when I was only 13 made me aware of peace at the end, of determination, and that human beings can decide when to die, and decide how to approach their meeting with their maker.

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