The future of the minister of the historic Liverpool Old Hebrew Congregation is unclear following a rift originating from a newspaper column he wrote suggesting that Jews should not fast on Yom Kippur as it would lower immunity to Covid-19.
The column by Rabbi Ariel Abel appeared in the Jewish Telegraph in late September.
In recent weeks, rumours have circulated among members that Rabbi Abel had resigned his part-time position, even though he continued to officiate at services before the latest lockdown.
However, senior warden Saul Marks wrote to congregants on Monday that “we have not received any notice of resignation from Rabbi Abel at this time”.
Mr Marks told the JC that “it would be imprudent of me to comment on unresolved employment matters” which “my colleagues and I on the management [board] are striving hard to resolve amicably. Negotiations between the parties remain ongoing.”
Rabbi Abel declined to comment, saying the matter was in the hands of legal advisers at his union.
In the September 25 column, Rabbi Abel questioned the halachic soundness of allowing “anyone at all to fast this year”, given that fasting lowered the body’s immune system and made people more susceptible to infection.
“No one can possibly know how, if they catch it, Covid-19 will affect them,” he wrote.
“There is nothing holy about wading into a 25-hour fast in the knowledge that you could be dead within a fortnight because of the risk you took.”
In a letter to Rabbi Abel, Mr Marks explained that while he had “no objection” to his “right to publish halachic opinions”, the synagogue requested that he “write nothing that could reasonably reflect badly on the congregation or bring it into disrepute”.
The synagogue had asked for Rabbi Abel’s columns to be accompanied by a disclaimer clarifying that the opinions espoused were not representative of the LOHC community.
It is understood that Rabbi Abel is currently not writing for the Jewish Telegraph.
Mr Marks told the JC: “Like Rabbi Abel, we have also taken legal advice on this matter. We have been fully assured that all our actions have been well within the law and well within the bounds of reasonable management requests by an employer to an employee, in any field of employment. We have not, at any time, sought to prevent him from writing his columns.”
He said it was a “positive development” that Rabbi Abel was willing to meet shul representatives.
LOHC’s Princes Road building has been described as “the most lavish High Victorian Oriental synagogue in England” and has Grade I-listed status.
