Rabbi attacks Sephardi leader for ‘dangerous’ gay love speech
A PROMINENT Strictly Orthodox rabbi has labelled a fellow minister “corrupt” and “dangerous” for speaking positively about gay love.
Rabbi Aaron Bassous, head of a Sephardi congregation in Golders Green, described Rabbi Joseph Dweck, senior rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community, as “even more poisonous than Louis Jacobs” and recommended that the London Beth Din “remove his Orthodox hat”.
Rabbi Dweck had told the congregation at the Ner Yisrael synagogue in north-west London last month that the Torah has very little to say about homosexuality and that, while sexual intercourse between men was forbidden, there were other ways for men to love each other.
He said: “I genuinely believe that the entire revolution of feminism and even homosexuality in our society… is a fantastic development for humanity.”
But in a two-hour talk on Monday night, Rabbi Bassous said Rabbi Dweck’s speech was “false and misguided… corrupt from beginning to end”.
He challenged “any Rav in the whole world to come out publicly with a signed letter of support for the talk which Rabbi Dweck gave”.
The Golders Green-based rabbi also said that Dayan Yonasan Abraham, a senior figure in the London Beth Din, had tried to persuade him not to speak out against Rabbi Dweck.
The Dayan, said Rabbi Bassous, even asked Chacham Yaakov Hillel, a prominent Sephardi leader in Israel with
UK links, to convince him not to publicly criticise Rabbi Dweck, together with other dayanim of the different Batei Din.
“However, I have spoken to Chacham Yaakov Hillel, and he has given me his full blessing,” said Rabbi Bassous.
At Monday’s shiur, which took place at the Beth Hamedrash Knesset Yehezkel synagogue, Rabbi Bassous argued that Rabbi Dweck was wrong to say that male homosexuality had been seen throughout human history. It had “only been part of depraved societies — ancient Greeks and the ancient Romans,” he said. “I don’t want to go into too much detail about what sort of depraved debauchery, removed from any sense of humanity”.
Describing Rabbi Dweck as “dangerous”, he continued: “Throughout Jewish history, there have been those who deviate from the Torah… the reformers, Conservative, Liberal and their ilk.
“But they’re not dangerous, because we know where we stand, and we know where they stand.
“When is it dangerous? When you have someone who comes in front of you with two hats. He’s got the hat of an Orthodox and the hat of a Reform. From the outside, he’s Orthodox, but his mouth spouts Reform.” Rabbi Bassous said the Sephardi leader was “even more poisonous than Louis Jacobs”, referring to the former Orthodox rabbi who, 50 years ago, famously divided the community after declaring the Torah was not written by God.
“This rabbi [Dweck] pontificates pious words — ‘I believe the Torah is from heaven’ — in the next talk he says ‘I believe that every single word of the Torah is dictated by God’. And then what does he do? He rewrites the script, and gives his own interpretations,” said Rabbi Bassous.
He called on the London Beth Din to take action against Rabbi Dweck, refusing to accept the Beth Din’s statement last week that it was a matter for the Sephardi community to deal with.
He said: “Rabbi Dweck has been saying these theories not in the Spanish and Portuguese community. He’s saying them in the congregation in Hendon of Rabbi Kimche. He is invited to Dayan Ehrentreu’s synagogue. On Shavuot night he’s invited to the flagship synagogue of the United Synagogue in St John’s Wood to speak. So we don’t buy that.
He cited the case of a dayan who was stripped of his office by the London Beth Din despite being under the authority of a different Beth Din. Rabbi Bassous said: “They stripped him and shamed him in public, until this very day.
They had no com- punction. So we, Anglo-Jewry, the rank and file of Anglo Jewry, request of the London Beth Din to say their views publicly in this matter, and if, in their view, Rabbi Joseph Dweck is not an Orthodox Rabbi, doesn’t spout Orthodox views, his hat, his Orthodox hat, should be removed from him”.
Rabbi Dweck said he preferred not to comment on Rabbi Bassous’s remarks.
Rabbi Dr Alan Kimche, minister of the synagogue where Rabbi Dweck gave his talk, rejected Rabbi Bassous’s “extreme criticism” as not representing “the consensus view of the majority of rabbonim and dayanim of London.
“Rabbi Dweck is a highly respected member of the Orthodox rabbinate and I’m confident he will in due course clarify those statements which some have found offensive.”