The Movement for Reform Judaism

After an opening prayer by Rabbi Lionel Blue, perhaps the best-known graduate of the College, the acting principal, Rabbi Dr Michael Shire paid tribute to Rabbi Louis Jacobs: “We mourn for the loss of such a great rabbinic mind and prolific scholar. It was he who gave us a reason to believe.” Rabbi Jacobs taught Talmud at the Leo Baeck College for 10 years as well as serving as Chair of the Academic Board. 

Rabbi Shire went on to describe the global context for the Conference: “We live in troubled times, this week we commemorate the London bombings of last year and recall the shock and horror of terrorists setting off bombs in our urban cities whether it be in New York, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Madrid. We are concerned for the welfare of Gilad Shalit, the young Israeli soldier captured by Hamas and for the need for continuing dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians. This conference is about learning what we must do as teachers of a religious tradition to bring repair to this fractured world and to renew our commitment to the intellectual and spiritual legacy that we have inherited.”

He quoted Rabbi Leo Baeck: “We must not as Jews deny ourselves to the problems of our time nor hide ourselves as Jews in the face of them.’

Within this context, Dr Diana Pinto delivered the first keynote speech of the Conference, addressing the question, ‘Can there be Jewish Answers to Europe’s questions’. Whilst commending Progressive Jewry for setting an example as a minority within the nation states of Europe, and to get beyond ‘victimhood’, she expressed some pessimism over the Jewish community’s ability to move beyond this position and to successfully navigate the pitfalls of integration without loss of identity.

Twenty-four rabbinic students, including most of the current student body at Leo Baeck College, but also students from Geiger College in Germany and the Levinsonn Institute in Holland, are attending the Conference; continuing the tradition at LBC of learning being passed down through the generations.

Over the next week, participants will be hearing from Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp who will focus the minds on the critical importance of environmental and human justice; Rabbi Dr Art Green, on Jewish mysticism and spirituality in the 21st century; and, in his first address as new Principal of LBC, from Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein, who will look to the future, outlining his plans and ambitions for the College following its 50th anniversary.

Rabbi Shire commented: “this Conference feels like a ‘return home’ for our graduates who are serving communities across the UK, Europe and the Former Soviet Union. The Conference is an opportunity to renew our mission and passion as rabbis. To remind ourselves why we do what we do. With twelve key note lecturers and over 30 workshops leaders, this is truly a feast of rabbinic learning and study.” He said he hoped this first ever International Rabbinic Conference at LBC would deepen the sense of connection between the alumni and the College, and that they would be launching an ‘Alumni Association’ following Conference.

For further details, please contact:
Andrea Newman, Movement for Reform Judaism Public Relations Officer

Notes for Editors

• Rabbis Miriam Bayfield, Neil Janes and Malcolm Cohen, received semikhah yesterday at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. They will serve Finchley Reform, Finchley Progressive and West London synagogues respectively.

• Committed to the training of rabbis and teachers both in pre-war Germany and post war England and the USA, Rabbi Baeck was the inspiration behind the founding of a theological College in London in October 1956. Already unwell at the time, Rabbi Baeck died two months later and it fell to Rabbi Werner Van der Zyl to guide the College into being and sustain it in its early days. In great honour for his teacher Van der Zyl proposed that the College be named Leo Baeck College in his memory.

• Dr Diana Pinto is a historian and writer living in Paris, and was educated in the United States (BA and PhD from Harvard University in History). Dr Pinto has written extensively on the new Jewish life in Europe in the 1990s and is now reflecting on the weight of “Jewish voices” inside a wider European commonwealth.  She has lectured widely both in Jewish and in academic fora. Dr Pinto is a research associate of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London, a member of the Academic Board of Paideia for Jewish Studies in Sweden, as well as “Sefer” in Moscow and the Jewish Studies Programme of the Central European University in Budapest.

• Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp was born in 1943 in Amsterdam and survived as a “hidden child”. He is Rabbi of the Liberal Jewish Community in The Hague (The Netherlands). He presides over the European Region of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Awraham Soetendorp is Earth Charter Commissioner and a Founding Board Member Green Cross International. He is co-chair of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders, with Sheikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Grand Mufti of Syria. He acts as advisor to the American Jewish World Service and is the founder and chair of Hope Foundation for Children for Universal Education. Awraham Soetendorp participates as a key discussion partner of the World Economic Forum in his function of Religious Leader. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the World Council of Religious Leaders, launched in Bangkok in June 2002.

• Rabbi Prof Marc Saperstein is the newly appointed Principal of Leo Baeck College. He has held the posts of Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Program in Judaic Studies at the George Washington University and the Gloria M. Goldstein Chair in Jewish History and Thought at Washington University in St Louis and served as Chairman of its Program in Jewish and Near Eastern Studies from 1989-1997. Professor Saperstein received a BA summa cum laude at Harvard, an MA at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, rabbinical ordination at the New York School of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and a PhD at Harvard. He taught on the Harvard faculty for nine years, holding the first regular faculty position in Jewish Studies at Harvard Divinity School. He has been visiting professor at Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania.

•  Rabbi Dr Art Green is one of the world's pre-eminent authorities on Jewish spirituality and Jewish thought. He received his BA and PhD from Brandeis and an M.H.L. and rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary. He has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he served as dean and president from 1987 to 1993. He is a prolific author and an editorial committee member for several publishers and publications. Dr Green has recently been appointed Rector of Hebrew College's new transdenominational rabbinical program. Green also holds the title of Visiting Professor of Jewish Mysticism at Hebrew College, and is the Philip W. Lown Professor of Jewish Thought at Brandeis University.

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