Idea #19 - Appoint rabbis who reflect their communities

First a question: which source of Jewish religious authority gets no mention in The Torah? That’s right - the rabbinate.

A second question: from whence comes a rabbi’s authority – easy, by having followers. A rabbi without a follower has no authority.

Let’s face it, most members of, so called, Orthodox synagogues do not think that what their rabbi advocates reflects either the way they live or the way they would ever choose to live. We all know that a large proportion of members of orthodox shuls ‘park round the corner on festivals’, most married women don’t cover their heads outside of shul and men even shake hands with women.

It’s time to stop feeling guilty and it is time to stop pandering to the absurd. Let’s strike a blow for honesty. If this is the way we wish to live let us appoint rabbis who say it’s acceptable to do so. The power is in our hands and by not exercising it we are declaring how unimportant rabbinical opinion is to us. It is a game of ‘we pretend to respect you and you pretend to be respected’. It’s unhealthy and it breeds hypocrisy.

We in the Anglo-Jewish community are truly fortunate, perhaps blessed, in having democratic control over our own religion. It’s true we have our hereditary priests (the Cohanim) but while they bless us they don’t make or apply our laws. We are democratic. In synagogues and associations of synagogues we elect our leaders and they, in turn, select and employ our rabbis and religious judges (Dayanim) – directly or indirectly.

So why do we so often complain about them? We can solve the problem. Let’s pay them proper respect and learn what their views are, before we employ them.

Every rabbi is entitled to hold whatever opinions they wish, but if we don’t like them we shouldn’t employ them. It’s time to vote with our hands not with our feet. And once we have resolved the petty issues we can start solving the bigger problems – like agunah and de-recognised converts.

Neil Bradman is Chairman of  The Centre for Genetic Anthropology

Check out our previous ideas: 18 - Create a website for Jewish women 17 - Create a UK Centre for Jewish Education 16 - Learn to talk to each other about difficult subjects 15 - Merge some of our charities and community services 14 - Hold joint events for JSocs and Islamic societies every term 13 - Create a virtual community 12 - Turn Anglo-Jewry into a learning community 11 - Turn Shabbat into the Greenest day of the week 10 - Focus on people, not institutions 9 - Create an online platform for Jewish students, 8 - Appoint anti-antisemitism champions, 7 - Share our synagogues and community centres with other religions,  6 - Establish a Succah in Trafalgar Square, 5 - Create a 'community service' programme for young Jews, 4 - Recruit older people to volunteer for the community,3 - Establish a fund for the Jewish arts, 2 - Pay membership fees to your community, not your shul, 1 - Make 2010/11 the year of synagogue renewal