Dayanim training course produces first graduate
THE WEMBLEY Sephardi Synagogue rabbi is the initial graduate of a pioneering course to train dayanim in the UK.
Dayan Daniel Kada is the first successful student to emerge from the programme launched by the Montefiore Endowment and the Eretz Hemdah Institute for Advanced Jewish Studies in Jerusalem five years ago.
Dayan Kada said he was indebted to the two organisations for “facilitating and supporting my studies over the past five years.
“It has been a very long and hard journey but I have enjoyed it thoroughly due to the masterful mentorship of Dayan Ofer Livnat [a member of the Sephardi Beth Din].”
He looked forward to “being in a position to serve and give back to the community”.
The endowment and Eretz Hemdah are already partners in a programme to train rabbis, which restored semichah to the UK for the central Orthodox rabbinate after it ended at Jews’ College (now the London School of Jewish Studies).
VThe endowment is funded from the estate of the Victorian philanthropist Sir Moses Montefiore. Eretz Hemdah specialises in long-distance learning.
Rabbi Kada is understood to have been invited to join the Sephardi Beth Din. It was announced this week that he will be the Lauderdale Road Synagogue’s new rabbi. Lucien Gubbay, the endowment’s chairman, said at the inception of the course that it aimed to “create rabbinical leaders who are moderate and clear-headed in their approach. It follows Sephardi custom… approaching halachic decisionmaking with mildness and adopting the traditional view which stresses the middle way and avoids extremes.”