Alyth mulls over whether to appoint a new principal rabbi

The new chair of Alyth, Gary Lipman, is to oversee efforts to strengthen the rabbinic team at one of the country’s largest synagogues.

The Golders Green-based Reform community, which has over 3,300 members, is currently served by a four-strong rabbinic team.

Its senior rabbi, Josh Levy, left at the beginning of last year to become chief executive of the Reform movement and see through the union with Liberal Judaism, which should be formalised later this year.

He was succeeded by Rabbi Golan Ben-Chorin from Israel, but in the aftermath of October 7 and the Gaza War, he felt he had to return to his family, who had remained there.

A spokesman for the community said while the clerical and professional teams were working hard to ensure a full programme of services and learning at Alyth, “we are aware of the need to grow and enhance our team to reflect the size of our community. New chair, Gary Lipman, will be working with the trustees and the professional team to form a rabbi search group to enable us to investigate the best way to enhance our existing clergy team.”

The group will assess whether the community needs to recruit a new principal rabbi or otherwise how to add to its clerical team.

Rabbi Hannah Kingston joined Alyth in 2017 and Rabbi Elliott Karstadt in 2020, while Rabbi Nicola Feuchtwang, who grew up in Alyth, was ordained at Leo Baeck College last summer. Rabbi Colin Eimer, the emeritus principal of Shaarei Tzedek in Southgate, has also served Alyth part-time for 10 years.

The congregation also has a community director Adam Martin.

Lipman, who was elected earlier this month, said, “I believe that the strength of Alyth lies in our collective voice, our shared purpose and our ability to embrace the diversity of our membership, whilst upholding our cherished traditions.”

He is a trustee of two Israel-oriented causes, Friends of Leo Baeck Haifa, which supports a school and outreach centre in the city, and the Malki Foundation, which helps families of children with special needs in Jerusalem.

At least two senior rabbinic appointments in London are due to be made in the coming year. New North London Synagogue’s senior rabbi, Jonathan Wittenberg, is due to retire at the end of the year, while the senior rabbi of the S & P Sephardi Community, Joseph Dweck, is planning to make aliyah.