ChiefRabbi reassures on schools
In his first major interview of 2017, the Chief Rabbi sets out his blueprint for how Jews can provide a corrective to the global drift to extremes, in politics, culture and religion
CHIEF RABBI Ephraim Mirvis says he has received personal assurances from the government that the rejection of two Jewish faith school applications will not have an impact on the future of Jewish education in Britain.
Chief Rabbi Mirvis told the JC he had personally lobbied Department for Education official son the issue.
The government rejected two Jewish free school applications last month, saying the amount of Hebrew and Jewish studies planned for their timetables was “disproportionate”. This led to fears that any future proposal for a Jewish school would be undermined.
But Rabbi Mirvis said: “I have held conversations with the Department for Education… its response to these applications does not spell the end of the road to the possibility of there being new Jewish schools in the future.”
There had been concerns that the government may challenge the proportion of Jewish studies offered at existing educational establishments. Rabbi Mirvis said: “I have heard the DfE say, explicitly, the decision does not affect our current schools.” He hoped the crisis over places would be resolved by existing secondary schools increasing capacity.
THE THREATS from extremism and populism pose the greatest challenges to Britain’s Jewish community, according to Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis — and they require a concerted effort to combat them.
Speaking to the JC ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as American president this week, and after a year dogged by allegations of antisemitism in British politics, the Chief Rabbi pledges to work to “guarantee the continuity of the middle ground”.
“I’m noticing a phenomenon,” he explains. “The world is changing and people are being drawn to the poles. We have a great challenge to maintain the strength of our middle ground.
“Worldwide, that middle-ground is starting to thin out and people are veering towards extremes. I’m very much a champion of the middle-ground. We have such a strong tradition of that within British Jewry.
“We need to adopt understanding and tolerance, and at the same time be understanding of all people and seek peace and unity.”
A Chief Rabbi who eschews much of the pomp and ceremony associated with the role over the past three centuries, Rabbi Mirvis greets me at the front door of his Hendon home, ushering me out of the rain into a smart, modern meeting-room lined with books span- ning politics, religion and sociology.
His message of positivity, delivered in his comforting South African accent, seems heavily at odds with the atmosphere of fear and desperation around the globe that he describes.
Explaining his analysis of that zeitgeist, Rabbi Mirvis admits: “We are currently living in a very challenging world. We have seen a shift in recent times. If previously one had referred to a divided world it would perhaps have been to divisions between East and West, between liberal and conservative, between the left and the right.
“Today there is a new fault-line running through our political establishment globally. I would refer to it as being ‘particular versus universal’ — there are others who refer to it as being ‘drawbridge up versus drawbridge down’, ‘open versus closed’.”
Three key questions face our societies, he says, on immigration, trade and cultural changes. The response at the ballot box — in the Brexit referendum and the election of Mr Trump, who Rabbi Mirvis memorably called “a racist”— has proved that “people are drifting to the extremes”.
“It is the easier option,” says Rabbi Mirvis as he acknowledges how “old alignments have just fizzled away” to leave a“new world” which has left many in the political, economic and religious centre dumbfounded.
He seeks assurance, unsurprisingly, in his faith and strength of his belief in the “enormous amount” Judaism can contribute to the world.
Our experiences as Jews can offer a blueprint for others, suggests Rabbi Mirvis. “The way of our lives is a fusion of the particular and the universal. We believe in an exclusivist faith, in preserving our own separate identity, our own calendar and festivals and schools. We unashamedly want to be proud of what makes us different.
“At the same time, an integral part of our Jewishness is our commitment to all of society. Our Jewish way is to embrace both ideals. It’s part of our identity, it’s what the Rambam calls the ‘golden mean’.
“We champion a life of moderation, taking the middle path… instead of just opting for the easy path of going to one extreme or another. This is a complicated, complex world. We need to deal with the issues as they exist.”
For Rabbi Mirvis that has meant a direct, hands-on approach, particularly in political and education matters. He confirms lobbying Department of Education officials on Jewish faith schools — “I see it as being my responsibility” — but is coy about his relationship with Theresa May.
The pair have enjoyed private meetings in Downing Street, and Mrs May famously spent the evening before becoming Prime Minister last July having dinner in the Mirvis family home.
The obvious conclusion to draw is that the daughter of a vicar and son of a rabbi have grown close and perhaps share a similar outlook on the aforementioned concerns affecting the world.
Rabbi Mirvis will not confirm this, saying only that Mrs May was “somebody who sought to keep a commitment, and coming to our home was a gesture to our community. It was not a gesture to me personally — but for my