Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg: ‘I still have plenty of fight in me for the causes I care about’

Refugees, interfaith and the environment remain at the forefront of his concerns.

It is the first time Masorti has had such a hands-on senior rabbi, dedicated to visiting communities, mentoring rabbis and acting as the public face of the movement. Wittenberg has already carried out Shabbat engagements with Stoke Newington Masorti, Mosaic in Stanmore and New London Synagogue.

“When I began as a rabbi, there was Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs and then myself. I was very touched and actually pained when he said to me once: ‘It will be less lonely now with you there.’”

Now the movement, which was founded in 1985, has at least ten rabbis and, he says, “a strong central organisation”, which feels “very dynamic”. There are new communities – most recently in Manchester – sprouting up.

Masorti Judaism represents “a Judaism I deeply believe in, rooted in the depths of Jewish textual, liturgical, halachic and liturgical tradition and engaging with the challenges now”, he says.

“As so much of the world feels to be moving in a populist direction, where there is less tolerance, the simplification of identity, more othering, and, in many places, more hatred, the role of a thoughtful, embracing, yet a deeply rooted religious position is ever more important. That applies to all faiths.”

As a joint president of the Council of Christians and Jews, Wittenberg hopes to be working with the new Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally – “whom I know quite well”. And as a signatory of last year’s Drumlanrig Accords between Jewish and Muslim leaders, he hopes to “take that work forward. It started top down, but it also needs to grow ground up.”

Although the interfaith scene post-October 7 remains “complex”, he says: “On a personal level, relationships with other faiths and faith leaders have not been diminished. Some have deepened. For example, after Bondi Beach, I had many, many messages from both Muslim and Christian colleagues.”

Initiatives like Drumlanrig help to create friendships, he says, while other groups have quietly been meeting out of the public eye. “I think there is a recognition by those who participate in them that they are ever more important.”

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg with his family at the leaving event at New North London Synagogue (Photo: Adrian Pope)Adrian Pope

Meanwhile, making common cause over the environment – he is a co-founder of the charity EcoJudaism in the UK – can help cement relationships, he believes, mentioning, for example, Kamran Shehzad, of the Bahu Trust UK, a Muslim ecological organisation.

“I wanted much more time for both hands-on practical work and [work] in the public square on climate and biodiversity. And that will be a big part of my life, I hope. I am involved with Rose Castle near Carlisle, where they are developing interfaith conflict resolution and environment-focused retreats,” he says.

A leading Catholic environmentalist, Andy Lester, told him: “‘More and more forces will come to drive us apart, which is why now we need to prepare a culture of being together’ – and that’s not just between the faiths, that’s also about relationships between different communities,” says Wittenberg.

“I visited his church where there are local people, including the local homeless, and refugees from Asia, Africa and Europe. He said this is what we need to stand for, and I completely agree.”

Wittenberg and his wife, Nicky, continue to host refugees in their Finchley home.

Demonstrations of interfaith alliance have become all the more important in the face of the “real ugliness out there”.

Selective moral outrage is not moral outrage

On antisemitism, he believes it “impossible” to draw a boundary between this and anti-Zionism. “It doesn’t mean every criticism of Israel is antisemitic, but I think anti-Zionism can pose as a disguise for anti-Judaism and, perhaps sometimes, the perpetrators of this aren’t even fully aware of the consequences of what they are doing. Sometimes, they deliberately are, but sometimes, they are not.”

As for those who are quick to condemn Israel but ignore, for instance, what has been happening in Iran, Wittenberg says: “Selective moral outrage is not moral outrage.”

But while differences over Israel have caused contention within the UK Jewish community, not least within NNLS itself, he has not shied away from speaking up when he felt the “reputation of Judaism” was at stake.

“The reports I get of what’s happening on the West Bank from friends and colleagues who are part of [NGOs] Torat Tzedek and Taayush are terrible. They are appalling on a human level because of what is happening to Palestinian villages and on a Jewish level because of the way a supremacist, nationalist brand of Judaism is prepared to kill and dispossess.

“The words Elijah says to Ahab: ‘Haratza v’gam yerashta?’, ‘Have you murdered and taken possession?’ are 100 per cent apposite.”

Some in the community, however, he believes, “prefer not to know… the brutal reality of what’s happening in the West Bank”.

It may take him a while to “orient myself” in his Masorti role, he acknowledges. He produces a weekly think-piece on Substack and has been toying with the idea of a podcast, though he barely uses X as a vehicle now – “A bit of me doesn’t want to use it at all.”

He is working on a new book on the theme of listening. “There’s listening to people, listening to nature, there’s trying to listen to whatever it means to trying to listen to God.”

And while he may have stepped down from his NNLS pulpit, some personal commitments remain. “Important pastoral relationships don’t just end when one retires,” he says.