MANNA 90 Editorial: Crisis Or Opportunity?
Written by Rabbi Tony Bayfield Monday, 30 January 2006
JABE is the acronym for the Jewish Association for Business Ethics. Its foundation and development owe a lot to the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, but also to a significant number of lay leaders from across the communal spectrum.
JABE exists to teach Jewish business ethics – to young people and adults alike. The agenda is a classic of British Jewry – to show that Jews are concerned with ethics for purposes of defence and also to make a contribution to the ethical standards of British society.
Over the last ten years in particular, JABE has flourished, doing excellent work in schools both Jewish and non-Jewish and producing materials of a very high standard for use both within and without the Jewish community. Its Trustees, many of whom are leading figures within the Reform, Liberal and Masorti communities, have given decisive and generous leadership. Its current Chair, Stephen Rubin, is an Honorary Vice President of the Movement for Reform Judaism.
At least two years ago one of the Trustees, Gerald Rothman, a former Chief Operating Officer of Canary Wharf and Chairman of the Leo Baeck College–Centre for Jewish Education, proposed a lecture at the Leo Baeck College, under the auspices of JABE. Orthodox rabbis are, sadly, prohibited from teaching at LBC-CJE. The proposed lecturer was a leading Progressive rabbi with a specialism in ethical investment.
It was ‘indicated’ that JABE should stick to neutral territory, so the lecture was planned for an independent venue. However, an Orthodox rabbi connected to the work of JABE objected and extensive discussions have since taken place.
‘This is an important, cross-communal institution’, said a number of Trustees. ‘I am a non-Orthodox Jew who puts considerable time and resource into this organisation. It’s a very good organisation and I want its work to continue but there is a matter of principle here’.
Back came the response that JABE is an example of the effective way things are done in Britain – Progressive lay leadership and resources combining with the learning of Orthodox rabbis to provide a valuable defence and educational service on behalf of the community.
‘That argument’, said a number of Trustees, ‘lacks a certain sensitivity and does not address the issue of principle’.
Several schemes were devised whereby teaching and resources could go into the various sections of the community but not under the label of JABE.
‘Those devices’, said a number of Trustees, ‘are dishonest and do not address the issue of principle’.
It was suggested that JABE is not a cross-communal organisation – like UJIA or Jewish Care or CST – but a gift of the Orthodox community to the community at large. ‘But those are not the terms under which I accepted my Trusteeship and under which I have worked and contributed’, said a number of the Trustees.
Questions were asked about whether there are any non-Orthodox rabbinic specialists in the area of business ethics. ‘Yes, there are, both in Britain and in the United States’, was the reply. ‘Are non-Orthodox Jewish business ethics any different from Orthodox Jewish business ethics?’ ‘We do have something distinctive to contribute’, said a number of the Trustees, ‘but that isn’t the point, it doesn’t address the issue of principle’.
‘You don’t understand’, came the response. ‘The only people who are qualified to teach Jewish business ethics are rabbis who hold a particular, specialised semikhah – in choshen mishpat (one of the four traditional divisions of halakhah)’. ‘That is precisely the point and the matter of principle over which we feel obliged to resign’, said seven of the Trustees, David Bernstein, Lloyd Dorfman, Lord Kalms, Lord Mitchell, Gerald Rothman, Stephen Rubin and Lord Stone.
For the ban on non-Orthodox rabbis is tantamount to one particular group arrogating to itself the right to decide who is qualified to teach Torah and, therefore, who is a rabbi.
Over the last five years, considerable progress has been made in working together for the good of British Jewry and respecting differences. But there have always been rocks lurking in the shallows and we have now hit them head on.
Banning Reform, Liberal and Masorti rabbis from teaching under the auspices of JABE is clearly and manifestly to say that our teachers are not rabbis in Orthodox terms and what they teach is not Torah from an Orthodox perspective.
That is neither helpful nor generous but even that, of itself, need not be an insuperable problem. People often harbour uncharitable thoughts about other people with whom issues of common concern make it imperative to work.
What is unacceptable is the refusal to work in the same organisation as Jews of a different outlook, the attempt to impose the views of a minority on the majority, the projection of fears born of insecurity into the notion that the non-Orthodox hanker for legitimation by the Orthodox, the inference that only one group of rabbis has anything to offer or any part to play in the survival of the Jewish people, the naked power-play to control the normative institutions of British Jewry.
Let us be clear. Reform, Liberal and Masorti Jews represent a substantial proportion of synagogue affiliations in this country. Only a minority of the rest are practicing Orthodox Jews. The overwhelming majority of Jews in this country, whilst deeply respectful of Orthodoxy and the profound learning of Orthodox rabbis, do not want to see control of the community in the hands of a right-wing Orthodox minority.
Ours is a small and declining community of 267,000 Jews. Even many of those only peripherally connected want to see Jewish survival and renewal – Jewish identity is precious and Judaism has so much to offer both Jews and wider society. No one group of Jews can do this on its own, one size will not fit all and the task is so immense that only harnessing every ounce of resource, energy and learning can give us any hope of halting, let alone reversing, present trends.
For what principle did the magnificent seven resign? For the principle that British Jewry needs every rabbi, every voluntary leader, every shred of wisdom, every insightful teaching and every ounce and penny of resource to ensure that British Jewry survives and moves beyond survival.
We have to find ways of focussing all our cross-communal institutions on what is best for the community and what is respectful to all its teachers, leaders and members. The Orthodox community has to find a way of enabling seven principled and far-seeing Trustees to rescind their resignations and enable JABE to carry on its work on behalf of the whole community and for the whole community."
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