Sephardi Judaism isn’t just for Sephardim

I had the privilege of learning from and working closely with Rabbi Dweck during his time in the UK. Together, we founded what would become the first Sephardi bet midrash in the UK since the Montefiore College of 1869: the Ḥabura.

What began as a small group learning together before Covid quickly evolved into a global platform. With support from the S&P Sephardi Community, the Montefiore Endowment and Dangoor Education, the Ḥabura launched weekly classes, a publishing house (Daʿat Press), a monthly minyan and a programme that now spans over 2,000 students across the UK, the US, Israel, Mexico and beyond.

But the Ḥabura was never just about making Torah content accessible. Its deeper purpose has always been to restore the learning style and worldview of classical Sephardi communities to their rightful place in Jewish life.

To limit the Sephardic tradition to those of Sephardic ancestry is like limiting Shakespeare to Englishmen

While many within the Anglo-Jewish community have defined Sephardi tradition by ethnicity or nostalgia, our ancestors defined it by a methodology of learning and living. An approach rooted in our talmudic sages: a Torah that engages with the world, respects the intellect, and recognises that the Author of Creation and the Author of Torah are one and the same – God.

Rabbi Dweck championed this approach across every platform he touched – synagogues, schools, universities and public forums throughout the UK and the broader Jewish world. His work, and the now-familiar sight of young Ashkenazim engaging with the tradition (finally, it was the other way around!), reminded us that Sephardi Judaism isn’t just for Sephardim.

As one Israeli scholar put it: “To limit the Sephardic tradition to those of Sephardic ancestry is like limiting Shakespeare to Englishmen.” Indeed, these integrationist ideas are not inherently “Sephardi”, they are Jewish. But they found their most consistent and enduring expression in Sephardi communities throughout the generations.

Thanks to Rabbi Dweck’s leadership, his students and many other contributing factors, the influence of a clear, intelligent and deeply traditional understanding of Torah has expanded across the UK. Today, we see ideas, texts and Jewish figures being taught in Jewish school curricula, at university lunch-and-learns, and in community batei midrash, that would have been rare before his arrival.

Indeed, so many young students I have the privilege of meeting and teaching every week are growing up with a model of Judaism in the UK that reflects a heritage rich in intellectual integrity and spiritual depth.

But with all this comes a reality check, especially for my fellow Sephardim in the UK.

We are seeing a growing trend of ethnically Sephardi young boys and rabbis trained exclusively in Ashkenazi-Charedi yeshivot with a distinct curriculum that is based on the Eastern European model, returning to the UK with a halachic orientation and theological worldview that are often quite different from those of our classical Sephardi sages. Many times, they themselves are unaware of this reality.

This is not, God forbid, a critique of Ashkenazi learning, which is a crucial and beautiful part of the Jewish story. But we must be honest: importing external frameworks into Sephardi communities without first understanding our own traditional methods risks severing a living chain of transmission, a mesorah with its own logic, values, and tone. A tradition that represented the majority of world Jewry up until only the last 200 years of our people’s long history on this precarious planet.

Therefore, British Sephardim have a duty to ensure that “Sephardi” is appreciated beyond the kitchen – by actively teaching, living, and developing its unique approach. To do this requires more than just Sephardi surnames. It requires awareness of our history, our methodologies to Torah and Talmud and our general approach to living a halachic life in the wider world.

And yet, I remain deeply hopeful.

With the appointment of Rabbi Amir Ellituv as the new spiritual head of the S&P Sephardi Community, and the arrival of his equally impressive wife, Rabbanit Tova, I believe a new chapter of strength and clarity is just beginning.

I have heard and seen wonderful things about this remarkable couple. Together, they represent the type of leadership that can develop what Rabbi Dweck and Rabbanit Margalit have graciously achieved.

With God’s help, I look forward to seeing them strengthen the S&P Sephardi community they now lead – serving as a living model for an Anglo-Jewry with a rich legacy of senior rabbis who contributed to an Orthodox vision of Judaism that sees the world not as a distraction from God, but as a profound expression of Him. Mehayil el hayil (“from strength to strength”)!

​

Sina Kahen is founder of Da’at Press, co-founder of the Ḥabura and the author of Ideas: Vayiqra in Context