US closes gap with affiliates in row over distance clause

Progress has been made towards resolving a long-running dispute between the United Synagogue and its affiliated congregations over recruitment rules.

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US dominates the Chief selection

The United Synagogue will have the dominant hand in choosing the next Chief Rabbi with US representatives taking seven out of the eight places on the working group responsible for drawing up a shortlist of candidates.

Shimmy Lopian, the chairman of the Manchester and District Council of Synagogues and recently appointed trustee of the Chief Rabbinate Trust, is the lone member from outside the U

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Are US's leaders fit for offce?

Last week the United Synagogue made a particularly nasty attack on this newspaper. I have read more or less every edition of every Anglo-Jewish broadsheet since the beginning of time. But I have never before read an attack of such viciousness on any such newspaper, and I would never have expected such a mindset to be projected from within the portals of the US.

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US report into stilborn graves fails to focus the blame

A report into missing graves of stillborn babies, buried in unmarked plots by the United Synagogue, has found no policy existed for dealing with infant deaths until the late 1980s.

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How the burial society can help at a time of trauma

According to stillbirth charity Sands there were 4,124 stillbirths in Britain in 2009, which equates to 11 babies stillborn every day. Stillbirth rates in 1970 were around 20 per cent higher than they are today.

But Jewish law took into account the extremely high infant mortality well before the 20th century. In the 1890s, there were around 150 deaths per 1,000 births in England and Wales.

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St Albans gets the full US treatment

St Albans Synagogue's change from affiliated status to full constituent United Synagogue membership was formally approved at Monday's US Council meeting.

Founded in 1933 by local residents who met in private houses, the congregation was boosted during World War II by people who fled London to escape the bombing. Many stayed on after the war, opening businesses in the city.

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'How to' guides online

Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has produced two new electronic resources to extend his outreach to synagogue members.

A series of 15 short video "how-to" guides, which can be seen on the United Synagogue's website and YouTube, demonstrate a range of Jewish practices, from putting on tefillin to gelilah, rolling up the Sefer Torah.

Lord Sacks has also published a new volume of Letters to the Next Gen

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An elected Chief Rabbi? If only

If I thought there was a cat in hell's chance of our being able to elect the next Chief Rabbi of "the United Hebrew Congregations", believe me I would hurry to don my second-best streimel and dance with a Sefer through the streets of St John's Wood, declaring as I went that not only do we all want Moshiach Now but that I would wager what, if anything, remains of my reputation that the Moshiach ha

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Get a chief rabbi, but not with a roadshow

The United Synagogue has not ruled out offering members the chance to vote on the next chief rabbi.

The JC launched a campaign last week for the next chief rabbi - to succeed Lord Sacks when he retires in September 2013 - to be democratically elected, with synagogue members and a wider section of the community having a say in the process.

The US said it was too early to decide what the proce

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Time for Jew in the pew to ask searching questions

When the election for president of the United Synagogue was under way, rumours were circulating that the contenders each had his own preferred candidate he would like to see "selected" as the next chief rabbi. The president would de facto become a member of the ambiguous group known as the Chief Rabbinate Trust and could then exert his influence to achieve his aims.

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