I am about to take delivery of an additional filing cabinet for my already cramped study. Into it will go at least two drawers-full of correspondence, papers and ephemera related to the conduct of synagogal life in this country within the past half-decade or so. Sorting through this material has been a wonderful antidote to the increasingly hysterical conversations taking place within British Jewry about philosemitism, antisemitism, and the remote possibility of Jews exiting the UK in their thousands. The material has to do with the daily lives of British Jews as they relate to the synagogal bodies with which they are or wish to be affiliated - their family circumstances; celebration of various rites of passage (barmitzvahs, batmitzvahs, weddings, funerals etc); in some cases their contracts of or for employment.
From time to time I have used this column to publicise some of the more heart-rending cases that have landed on my desk. But other cases have proved too sensitive for anything approaching a raw exposé. What follows are anonymised summaries of two case-files, which I invite you to ponder over, as I have been doing. What do they tell us about the degree of professionalism that we bring to the day-to-day management of our communal infrastructures?
Case No 1 concerns the internal politics of a small but still thriving synagogue in north London, at whose spiritual head is a rabbi of modest means who has been told that he is surplus to requirements. This is not because of his conduct, less still with the content of his weekly sermons. The congregation that he serves is composed of two distinct communities, the older of which is loyal to him but the younger of which – comparatively recent arrivals in the neighbourhood – wants its own man to occupy the pulpit. More than that, I strongly suspect these new arrivals have their eye on the synagogue building – a piece of real estate whose value has increased over the years. Some years ago the new arrivals staged a coup: they appear to have paid the membership fees of as many potential members as they could, so "packing" the annual general meeting. That done, the then synagogue trustees were given their marching orders, and new trustees were appointed.
Case No 2 concerns the plight of a family in membership of a medium-sized synagogue in Greater London. The male head of the household is a comparatively young professional with a wife and family to support – to say nothing of his mortgage. Some time ago his employer declared him redundant, with the result that he has been unable to pay his synagogue membership dues. Questioned by the synagogue management as to why he was in arrears, he explained his situation, but was then asked to attend a meeting at which, apparently, his personal finances were to be reviewed. Demands were also made for him to provide the synagogue management with copies of his credit-card and bank statements. In April last year he was told quite bluntly that if his membership arrears were not "cleared within 30 days…your membership will be terminated 30 days from the date of this letter without any further correspondence with the resultant loss of burial rights and other privileges."
I want you all to contemplate that ultimatum. As you do so, I need to remind you that it is the religious duty of every synagogue (orthodox, non-orthodox, it doesn't matter) to bury the Jewish dead. Only a Beis Din can deprive someone of burial rights, and then only for the most heinous of religious offences. This gentleman's only offence was to have lost his job. And I should add that he had in fact – but under obvious duress - produced some bank statements, to prove his impecunity.
It is the duty of every synagogue to bury the Jewish dead
Limitations of space prevent me from detailing other cases of synagogues behaving badly: for example, I have several files relating to the shabby treatment of synagogue employees, whose statutory rights appear to me to have been trampled underfoot. As British Jews we ask – we demand – that the state affords us the protection and the respect to which we are most assuredly entitled. But how can we do this whilst we continue to treat each other with disdain and contempt?
