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Why America Has No Chief Rabbi

Chief Rabbi Aaron Hart.

The public face of world Jewry will change this summer.  Come September, both England and Israel will install new chief rabbis.  Jonathan Sacks, the brilliant and widely published chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, is retiring, to be succeeded by the affable Ephraim Mirvis, currently rabbi of the Finchley Synagogue in North London.  Yona Metzger, the Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi community of Israel, is completing his ten-year fixed term, to be succeeded by whomever a special 150-member electoral assembly selects—for the moment, a subject of intense speculation and backroom maneuvering. 

Relevant Links
The Chief Rabbi of Canterbury  Simon Gordon, Jewish Ideas Daily. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has fulfilled an important role in British society—just not the one he was appointed to perform.
America's Religious Left  Jonathan Neumann, Jewish Ideas Daily. Since the rise of the Religious Right in the 1980s, American religion has been associated with political and cultural conservatism.  But historically, American religion has been equally liberal.

The position of chief rabbi dates far back in Jewish history.  In the Middle Ages, when Jews were treated as a corporate body, the chief rabbi served not only as the judge, scholar, and supreme religious authority for his community, but  frequently bore responsibility for collecting its taxes as well.  Many a chief rabbi, as a result, was appointed or confirmed directly by the king. 

Chief rabbis today confine their authority to the religious realm, but their role is never purely ceremonial.  Inevitably, they must also devote themselves to promoting their own brand of Judaism (usually some variety of Orthodoxy) over all the others.  Israel’s chief rabbinate, in recent years, has sought to undermine more liberal approaches to conversion and has taken a hardline stance on women’s issues and on the thorny problem of who is a Jew.  Rabbi Sacks alienated liberal Jews early in his tenure and promoted a centrist form of Orthodoxy that those to his religious right openly disdained. 

America is unusual in never having had an official chief rabbi.  In 1888, a short-lived Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations imported Rabbi Jacob Joseph of Vilna to serve as chief rabbi of New York, but that effort ended disastrously.  Consumers soon balked at the extra charges imposed in return for the rabbi’s supervision of kosher food.  Competing rabbis, some of whom also styled themselves “chief rabbi,” offered their supervisory services at lower rates.  Without its projected income stream, the association of Orthodox congregations that had brought Rabbi Joseph to America defaulted on its obligations to him and went out business.  The unfortunate rabbi spent his last years as an impoverished invalid.  No successor was ever appointed. 

A few Orthodox rabbis in other American cities did, for a time, carry the title “chief rabbi,” based on their learning and status.  One or two even pretended to the title “chief rabbi of the United States.”  But none ever achieved recognition outside his own Orthodox circle.  

As a matter of law, the First Amendment precludes the government from recognizing one religious authority as “chief” over another.  Just as America introduced free-market capitalism into the economy, so it created a free market in religion.  Contrary to expectations, this has had the paradoxical effect of strengthening religion in the United States.  As Thomas Jefferson observed as early as in 1820, religion thrived under the maxim “divided we stand, united we fall.” 

In this environment, the creation in America of a government-protected form of Judaism under the authority of a chief rabbi was clearly impossible.  Instead, American Jews accommodated themselves to the nation’s competitive religious marketplace, which by and large has served them well.  Rabbis, like their Christian religious counterparts, win or lose status through their individual activities and accomplishments, exemplified by Newsweek’s annual listing of the 50 most influential rabbis of the year. 

American Jews have nevertheless been reluctant to recommend their free-market approach to religion to Jewish communities abroad.  A recent conference hosted by the prestigious American Jewish Committee, for example, heard a litany of complaints concerning the Israeli chief rabbinate and its maltreatment of non-Orthodox Jews, Russian Jews, women and converts.  But in the end, AJC called for “significant modifications” to the chief rabbinate, rather than the embrace of the religious free market.  A paper by former Undersecretary of Defense Dov Zakheim, delivered at the conference, argued that “what is needed . . . is not the abolition of the Chief Rabbinate, but rather its transformation into a much more circumscribed, yet relevant and all-inclusive authority.” 

Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, America’s foremost 20th-century Modern Orthodox thinker, who exercised vast influence on American Jewish life without ever having been selected chief rabbi, was wiser.  He turned down the invitation to serve as Israel’s chief rabbi, because, he explained in 1964, he “was afraid to be an officer of the State.”  

As England and Israel prepare to install new chief rabbis, Rabbi Soloveitchik’s decision deserves to be remembered.  “A rabbinate linked up with the state,” he warned, “cannot be completely free.” 

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University and Chair of its Hornstein Jewish Professional Leadership Program.  He is also the Chief Historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History.  His most recent book is When General Grant Expelled the Jews (Schocken/Nextbook).

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COMMENTS

Aron Bally on January 23, 2013 at 7:32 am (Reply)
Do you have any such information re. sephardic jewery and more particulary in Bulgaria?
Expat on January 23, 2013 at 7:37 am (Reply)
.. But the UK Chief Rabbi, appointed by the UK United Synagogue organisation (a broad-based Orthodox organisation of mainly London synagogues) is not in any way appointed by or responsible to the British government. The Israel Chief Rabbinate is. The article is a little misleading in that respect.

The UK Chief Rabbi is a totally private appointment. That the last two CR's - Sacks and Jakobovits - both had prominent public personnae is a reflection of their personal stature, not of the office. Whether or not the structure of the UK Chief Rabbinate, which I think does tend to squash the individuality of rabbis in his organisation, is a good idea or not is a separate argument. ("The existence of the Chief Rabbi in the UK is, paradoxically, the main reason why they could not really find a star-quality local candidate.")
G. Erlbaum on January 23, 2013 at 9:49 am (Reply)
Sarna is WAY off base. Shmuely Boteach calls himself "America's (=Chief) Rabbi" and no individual or Jewish organization has sued him for misrepresentation.
Plus, Sheldon Adelson- who, as the richest Jew in America, is the de facto King of American Jewry- supports him (financially) !
Judith Roumani on January 23, 2013 at 11:54 am (Reply)
Re Sephardic Jewry, I believe that the rabbi of the Spanish-Portuguese Congregation, the oldest synagigue in America represents all Sephardim in America. Re Bulgarian Jewry, please check www.sephardichorizons.org , upcoming issue, article by Steven Sage.
יצחק רפאל הכהן on January 23, 2013 at 7:50 pm (Reply)
Is Prof. J Sarna related to the late Rosh Yeshiva "Hevron" in Jerusalem ?
Thank you.
Yits'hak
Maury S. on January 23, 2013 at 8:24 pm (Reply)
There was a Chief Orthodox Rabbi in Wilkes Barre,Pa. by the name of Rabbi I.M.Davidson, of blessed memory. (1889-1963) His father, Rabbi Philip Davidson, succeeded Rabbi Jacob Joseph. He was recognized as a Rabbi to all in Wilkes Barre. Most of all he gave fantastic sermons.

A review of his life can be read in THE JEWS of WILKES BARRE published in 1999 on pages 52 thru 60.
Brianna on January 24, 2013 at 2:58 pm (Reply)
An American Jewish acquaintance of mine says that one of the reasons she would never emigrate to Israel is because she has more freedom of religion in America. Now if only we could bring back that American economic capitalism along with that American religious capitalism, we would be all set.
Jerry Blaz on January 25, 2013 at 5:13 pm (Reply)
Hooray for the American system.

Many British Jews resent the appointment of an Orthodox rabbi as the non-Orthodox segments of British Judaism keep growing, while the chief rabbi is invariably Orthodox. In the 21st century a "chief rabbi" is an anachronism of the first water. It was instituted by the British in Israel, and now it is causing more social problems while failing to represent and serve all the segments of Judaism in Israel.

Not only is there a chief rabbi in Israel but there are two chiefs, a Sephardic and an Ashkenazic chief rabbi, with their offices and retinues. They are better at absorbing their budgets than making "better" Jews in Israel. The offices of chief rabbi in Israel should be abolished.

The Israeli public resents religion that can spend a budget allocated from the state, and then allow its followers to be exempt from the obligations that other citizens must therefore fulfill in their place. The resentment is enhanced by permitting these followers to live on the public dole. The resentment is further enhanced because the same citizens must pay because these religionists claim a superior lifestyle. It is not only anachronistic but stupid.
Howard Jacob on January 25, 2013 at 11:10 pm (Reply)
Maury S.
I grew up in Wilkes-Barre and we were members of the Ohav Zedek synagogue and I remember Rabbi Davidson being the Chief Rabbi of a constellation of orthodox synagogues in Wilkes-Barre. Was he the only chief rabbi in American Jewish history? I also have the book that you referred to. What is your last name?
Maury S. on January 27, 2013 at 6:01 pm (Reply)
My last name is SIMON. I left WB in 1960.
SB on January 28, 2013 at 6:53 pm (Reply)
America does have a chief Rabbi. His name is Shmuley Boteach.
Maury S. on January 29, 2013 at 12:03 pm (Reply)
Perhaps you are SHMULEY BOTEACH since the initials are SB. If this is true, you must have crowned yourself as CHIEF RABBI.. I have not seen in the media where your the "CHIEF RABBI". Please advise us when you became CHIEF RABBI. If you are so great, how come you were not elected this past November to Congress.
David Z on February 13, 2013 at 5:31 pm (Reply)
That's not to "Jewish communities abroad" but to Israel. Which is a unique situation. It can be debated, but be honest about its uniqueness. American Jews have no problems with free market Judaism that exists everywhere else on the globe and doesn't claim to represent all Jews (and doesn't represent all Jews in the eyes of umot haolam).

Comments are closed for this article.

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