New group aims to give Torah ethics a voice in communal debate

To encourage young members of the community, it is launching essay prizes for high school students and for yeshivah, seminary or university students in the name of the late Chief Rabbi Jakobovits after Succot.

Its first pamphlet places a strong emphasis on the universalist aspects of Jewish thought, declaring: “We believe that every human being is created in the image of God and Jewish life must reflect that through compassion, righteous- ness, and integrity.

“A history of trauma must not cloud our moral vision or dull our responsibility to others.”

The pamphlet states: “We live in morally challenging and physically dangerous times. The Jewish State of Israel is facing ethical challenges which the Jewish people have not faced in thousands of years.

“We believe that the terrible attacks on our people – over the last century – must deepen our response to ethical challenges.”

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Among its founder members is Daniel Greenberg, who in his professional life is the current Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

Rabbi Michael Pollak is a philosophy teacher who gives a Daf Yomi Talmud shiur at Ner Israel, while Dr Brian Berenblut is a physicist who edited a recent booklet that revisited the “Land for Peace” debate between Lord Jakobovits and Ner Israel’s founding rabbi Dr Alan Kimche that took place at Ner Israel in the wake of the Oslo Accords of 1993.

Dr Donald Franklin, a government economist, leads a Talmud circle at Golders Green Synagogue, while Elkan Adler is a lawyer who is the gabbai (warden) at Magen Avot.

The group has also set up a website, wwwjewishethicsproject.org