Who should replace Jonathan Sacks as chief rabbi?

Who should replace Jonathan Sacks as chief rabbi?
It is an odd, many-layered job, and the kind of person a polarising Jewish community should choose is not at all obvious
Alexander Goldberg
guardian.co.uk,
Friday 17 December 2010 10.31 GMT

Lord Sacks, the chief rabbi, announced on Tuesday that he will be stepping down from his post in September 2013 after nearly a quarter of a century in the job. In the next few weeks and months there will be speculation about his successor and the meaning of the role in the 21st century.

What sort of candidate should the community be looking for? Is it more important to have a candidate that can speak to the outside world or one who can speak to disaffiliated Jews? Should the candidate seek to unite orthodox factions, reaching out to the strictly orthodox, or try to engage with reform and progressive movements? How about a great intellectual or academic? Will he be a reformer or a reactionary?


The chief rabbinate is an odd job: representing Judaism to the outside world; providing spiritual leadership for mainstream orthodox Jews in the United Kingdom, Australia and Hong Kong (when Britain gave up its colony, the local community kept our chief rabbi); and finally trying to please conservative, centrist and liberal wings of those who recognise his spiritual authority (the United Synagogue and the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth). This final task will probably dictate the choice of chief rabbi.

Sacks has given the community great standing in the outside world. In academic and political circles he is taken as a serious thinker on modern social issues; the government has openly borrowed his ideas on integration and cohesion; and his contributions to Thought for the Day on Radio 4 have given millions a window onto modern Jewish ideas. Sacks will be remembered for his intellectual endeavours, his championing of Jewish education and as an ambassador for Judaism.

The internal politics of the Jewish community is a much more difficult job to navigate. It is here that the community needs to reflect a little. The structure of United Synagogue was very much modelled, in the 19th century, on the Church of England. It was designed to be an all-encompassing body, which like its Christian counterpart tried to maintain the notion of a broad church or synagogue. In the 1980s, centrist Orthodox institutions accounted for around three-quarters of affiliated British Jewry. Today it is 50% and has an aging profile. The growth of the haredi (strictly Orthodox) community on the one hand and secularisation on the other has led to haemorrhaging of the United Synagogue.

The community is no doubt polarising along the same lines as all religious groups in western Europe, a shrinking liberal tendency and an empowered and growing religiously conservative group. There needs to be an open discussion within the community about what sort of leadership the community needs and how that person can bring people back to the synagogue – or failing that how successful institutions, such as Jewish schools, can be transformed into 21st-century community hubs?

Where the new chief rabbi should align his movement is important, not least in terms of whom he purports to represents in a community that has seen massive demographic shifts. There are those in centrist Orthodox circles who would like to see the United Synagogue become more closely aligned with the strictly Orthodox movement in order to avoid any splits. Others in the community would like to see a more American-style form of pluralistic community, where centrist Orthodox Judaism engages with different nominations. In essence, this debate boils down to a number of concerns regarding the recognition of centrist Orthodox rabbinic authority and in particularly the complex question of the recognition of conversions (both inside Orthodoxy and between different denominations) as well as the philosophical direction of British Jewry in the future. This is likely to become more complex over time.

Obviously, other issues such as leadership qualities, gravitas, intellectual ability and the willingness to do such a difficult job are going to play a part – but in giving us almost three years to select a new chief rabbi, surely we have an opportunity to air issues.

The real question is what the members of the community want to see? The president of the United Synagogue, Simon Hochhauser, has suggested this week that focus groups might be used. Let me be bold here. I think that the selection process has to include as many as possible. In France, chief rabbis are elected every few years and a race for chief rabbi has meant different candidates have had to set out their stall to the entire community. The process needs to be open, public and selected by the people whom the chief rabbi represents. If we are selecting the next chief rabbi who is likely to be in post until the 2030s then lets have the debate: what community do the followers of the chief rabbi want; and who do they want to lead them?