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Judaism and Europe
Author(s): Freud-Kandel, Miri
Editor(s): Davie, Grace; Leustean, Lucian N.
Date: 2021
Topics: Jewish History, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: It is not possible to make sense of Judaism today without understanding how it evolved in Europe. It was in Europe that the multiple options took shape for thinking about what Jewishness could mean once it became just one component among others in an individual’s sense of self. At the same time, European Jewry has endured a long and painful journey as it tried to create confident accounts of how Jewish identity could be understood. This journey reflects a struggle faced right across Europe between accommodating difference and acknowledging the inherent limitations of tolerance. With this in mind, this chapter examines the different pathways that have been forged by Jews across Europe as they sought to construct proud interpretations of both Judaism and Jewishness. In so doing, key themes are explored: cultural Judaism, religious reform, assimilation, anti-Semitism, secularization, and Zionism.
Minhag Anglia: The Transition of Modern Orthodox Judaism in Britain
Author(s): Freud-Kandel, Miri
Date: 2012
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Orthodox Judaism, Religious Observance and Practice, Religious Denominations, Jewish Law
Abstract: In certain respects the mainstream Orthodox Jewish community in Britain, fully engaged and integrated into British life, appears to offer an exemplar of a Modern Orthodox Judaism. However the term minhag Anglia may be used to capture the nature of the often unsystematic blending of Jewishness and Britishness that can characterise Anglo-Jewish practice. This paper considers whether the broadly unthinking nature of minhag Anglia precludes its ability to function as a strategy for Modern Orthodox Judaism.
The British Chief Rabbinate: A Model for Leadership or Decline?
Author(s): Freud-Kandel, Miri
Date: 2015
Topics: Orthodox Judaism, Chief Rabbinate, Jewish Leadership, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Extract:

A striking feature of the debates associated with appointing a new chief rabbi in Britain at the end of the term of Emeritus Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was a clear sense of the contribution the role makes to Jewish life both in Britain and more broadly. This was widely noted, also, in the specific praise and reflection on the achievements of the outgoing chief rabbi which accompanied his retirement. On both a national and international plane, the British chief rabbinate is perceived to have acquired a wide-ranging voice and influence. The reach of the office is seen to extend both to Jewish communities outside Britain and in a British context to the wider society beyond the Jewish community. The possibility of abolishing the post and replacing it with some sort of body that could serve in its place was given only the most cursory consideration.1 This was despite the fact that it is a role that has its origins in nineteenth-century Victorian Britain, when it was designed under Anglican influences to serve a very different community with markedly different needs.2 The instinct to retain the post in its current form also ignores the fact that the chief rabbinate itself has rather limited real powers, a product of its evolutionary development rather than being a particularly clearly thought out office from the outset. Moreover, the reality of the British chief rabbinate is that notwithstanding the varied types of “success,” however we may choose to define this notion, that different chief rabbis have enjoyed in Britain, it has also consistently been a cause of division and disagreement—as much a source of controversy as it has been a source for leadership and representation.
The British Chief Rabbinate: A Viable Institution?
Author(s): Freud-Kandel, Miri
Date: 2011
Topics: Orthodox Judaism, Chief Rabbinate, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Is the British Chief Rabbinate still a viable institution? Two recently published books on
Anglo-Jewry construct differing arguments about the influence and power of the office of
chief rabbi. This paper examines the positions presented in these works and considers how
changes in theology, cultural identity, and demography among Jews in Britain could lead
to a reconsideration of the nature of the chief rabbinate. It questions whether Britain’s
chief rabbis have influenced the religious direction of Anglo-Jewry or merely overseen inexorable
religious shifts that reflect the growing stringency to be found in Orthodox Judaism
beyond British shores. While some measure of theological consistency may be identified in
Orthodoxy on interpretations of the principle of Torah min hashamayim, is this a sufficient
criterion for arguing against any evidence of religious shifts? More broadly, the role of
theology and religious leaders in determining how a religious community develops is
worth considering. These can be contrasted with the influence of social, cultural, and historical
factors. Even if the chief rabbinate has been a force for good in the past, this paper
examines whether the current state of Anglo-Jewry calls for a rethink of how the post should
function as it moves forward.
Orthodox Judaism in Britain Since 1913: An Ideology Forsaken.
Author(s): Freud-Kandel, Miri
Date: 2006
Topics: Orthodox Judaism, Chief Rabbinate, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: In 1991, just as Jonathan Sacks was acceding to the post of Chief Rabbi, the United Synagogue, the largest synagogal institution in British Jewry, commissioned a report entitled "A Time for Change". This report identified the significant difficulties in which many of the Orthodox institutions of British Jewry found themselves: the United Synagogue itself, the Chief Rabbinate, and the Bet Din - its religious court. It suggested that the root cause of the problems was a shift away from 'minhag Anglia, a celebration of the twofold blessing of being Jewish and British'. This work examines the thought and influence of the three Chief Rabbis whose terms in office have begun and ended during the twentieth century. It follows the theological shifts that have occurred amongst the religious leadership of Orthodox Judaism in Britain and assesses the influence of factors such as immigration and the so-called 'Jacobs Affair' in effecting these changes. The Jewish community in Britain provides a model of a religious minority group's attempt to secure its survival in the midst of a host society that espouses alternative values derived either from secularism or an alternative religious system.
Through an in-depth analysis of the theology of Chief Rabbi Joseph Herman Hertz, this work identifies a paradigm that was established for Jews in Britain of a strong and confident Orthodoxy that champions interaction in the host society. The Chief Rabbinates of Israel Brodie and Immanuel Jakobovits were each influenced in different ways by the burgeoning influence of alternative models for Orthodox Judaism. This work considers how this facilitated the displacement of the community's fervour for unity with religious polarisation; and analyses how its religious leadership adopted a theology which seemed to call on Anglo-Jewry to forsake its ideology of meaningful interaction to secure its religious identity.