Early on I saw the repression and idolatry of Stalinism, and when it cracked, I was open to religion again.

It was admitted by the early rabbis that the sectarians could be as full of good works as eggs were full of meat.

I feel that the Christian experience and the Jewish one have much to give each other. If this open society continues and there is no return to political anti-Semitism, then this encounter, deeper than any theology, may happen.

I was certainly open for something being on the edge of a nervous breakdown, perplexed by my own sexuality. I was gay.

For some years I deserted religion in favour of Marxism. The republic of goodness seemed more attainable than the Kingdom of God.

My mother was a modern woman with a limited interest in religion. When the sun set and the fast of the Day of Atonement ended, she shot from the synagogue like a rocket to dance the Charleston.