Despite his deep intellectual deliberations and anguished desire to put matters right, he failed to achieve substantial change regarding the role of women in the United Synagogue
November 12, 2020 14:34
From the Jewish woman’s perspective, Rabbi Sacks may have thought too deeply and perhaps not widely enough. His United Synagogue Women’s Review, which he launched in 1993, two years after becoming Chief Rabbi, genuinely tried to redress the inbalance that flowed from male domination of the United Synagogue. One serious issue was the plight of the agunot — women whose husbands had refused them a get, a Jewish divorce, and could not remarry under Jewish law.
“They are one of the greatest tragedies that the Jewish world has had to come to terms with”, the late Lady Jakobovits, his predecessor’s wife, told me when I interviewed her for her biography, Amelie. It had haunted her husband, Immanuel Jakobovits, Rabbi Sacks’ predecessor, and his father before him.
In October, 1995 some 50 agunot held a vigil outside the office of the Chief Rabbi with banners and chains representing the “chained wives.” Unlike many of her younger contemporaries, Mrs Jakobovits opted for restraint and modesty. Many, like Ros Preston, who headed the Women’s Review, said at the time: “I think the sight of Jewish women on the street is entirely unique – and it is very high in the public mind at the moment.”
Mrs Jakobovits had insisted the Review should not come from the Chief Rabbi’s office, but from a secular source, such as the Board of Deputies. “She foresaw difficulties,” said Ms Preston. “I knew what I was doing and had my agenda, and she saw it as a danger. She was trying to guard the office of the Chief Rabbi.”
The Review put women’s rights higher on the political agenda and opened the minds of women, previously closed through lack of awareness. They were no longer prepared to sit back and wait. Yet wait was exactly what Ms Preston and her supporters had to do, because Rabbi Sacks took so long to consider the Review’s recommendations about women’s involvement in synagogue services, and the agunot.
Some like Syma Weinberg, who worked for Jewish Continuity before becoming Executive Director of the Chief Rabbi’s office, could not understand Rabbi Sacks’ delay. She saw him as “juggling” the issues, making them believe he was on their side, and would do something about it.
But maybe Rabbi Sacks was also battling two opposing strands of thought; the younger ones seeking to deepen their religious role within the United Synagogue and those, like Mrs Jakobovits, who felt change would come at its own momentum.
But change didn’t come. Despite his deep intellectual deliberations and anguished desire to put matters right, despite the respect he won from modern Orthodox and Progressives alike, Rabbi Sacks failed to achieve substantial change regarding the role of women in the United Synagogue and the wider issue of agunot. The chained wives must have haunted him, much as they had his predecessor.
As for the agunot, it was Lord Jakobovits who secured a Lords amendment to the Family Law Bill granting the courts the right to withhold a Decree absolute if a man refuses his wife a get. It did not go far enough for many women, disappointed by the Review, who felt Jewish law, not civil law, must address the issue.
