Mirvis to make Orthodox history with Limmud visit

CHIEF RABBI Ephraim Mirvis has this week set aside the previous inhibitions against Orthodox participation in Limmud and announced that he will be the first serving chief rabbi to go to the cross-communal education conference in December.

His widely expected decision will pave the way for more United Synagogue and central Orthodox rabbis to attend. Only a minority have done so in the past.

Although Rabbi Mirvis’s predecessor, Lord Sacks, participated in the conference before becoming chief rabbi, he stayed away after taking office.

In a statement issued on Monday, Rabbi Mirvis said he was “pleased” to be taking part. “As I said in my installation address, one of my primary functions is as teacher of the community,” he said, “I see Limmud as an opportunity to teach Torah to large numbers of people who want to learn.”

Oliver Marcus, who is co-chairing the conference which is expected to be attended by 2,500 people at Warwick University, said he was delighted that the Chief Rabbi had “chosen to join us at Limmud conference as a presenter and a participant”. US president Stephen Pack said he “wholeheartedly” welcomed the move.

A spokesman for the Beth Din said that the dayanim remained “seriously concerned that the attendance of Orthodox rabbis at Limmud blurs the distinction between authentic Orthodox Judaism and non-Orthodox Jewish beliefs and practices.” But they retained “every confidence” in the Chief Rabbi.

Widely expected it may have been, but the Chief Rabbi’s confirmation that he will be attending this year’s Limmud is no less welcome for that. Limmud is British Jewry at its best — and an export of which we can all be proud. It is inclusivity made real. So it was not merely wrong that Lord Sacks refused to have anything to do with it, it was plain bizarre. It was also an indication of who called the shots, because left to his own devices he might well have been more accommodating. But in this, as in so much else, the former Chief Rabbi refused to act against the entrenched views of his dayanim. Rabbi Mirvis has thus, in his first important decision, made clear that he will not be dictated to and in doing so has dragged the Beth Din along with him. That is all to the good, and augurs well for the future.