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==Personal life==
==Personal life==


Janner-Klausner was introduced by an aunt to her husband, David, in Jerusalem in 1986.<ref name="Not"/>
Janner-Klausner was introduced by an aunt to her husband, David, in Jerusalem in 1986.<ref name="Not"/> They married in 1988.<ref name="Elgot">{{cite news | url=http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/10/29/beyond-belief-rabbi-laura-janner-klausner_n_6067064.html?utm_hp_ref=uk | title=How Britain's Only Female Head Of Faith Took On The Religious Establishment, And Won | work=[[Huffington Post]] | date=17 November 2014 | accessdate=22 November 2014 | author=Elgot, Jessica}}</ref>


Dr David Janner-Klausner was Programme and Planning Director at the United Jewish Israel Appeal and currently works as Director of Business Development at Commonplace Digital Ltd.<ref name = "Times">{{cite web|last1=[[Movement for Reform Judaism]]|title=Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner in the Times|url= http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/from-the-movement-rabbi/rabbi-laura-janner-klausner-in-the-times.html|publisher=[[Movement for Reform Judaism]]| accessdate=2 June 2014}}</ref> He is the brother of [[Amos Oz]], the Israeli author.<ref name = "Times"/> David and Rabbi Laura have three children: Tali, Natan and Ella.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Harpin|first1=Emma|title=Emma Harpin: Working Mothers – in pictures|url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/9575091/Emma-Harpin-Working-Mothers-in-pictures.html?image=6|work = [[The Daily Telegraph]]| accessdate=2 June 2014}}</ref>
Dr David Janner-Klausner was Programme and Planning Director at the United Jewish Israel Appeal and currently works as Director of Business Development at Commonplace Digital Ltd.<ref name = "Times">{{cite web|last1=[[Movement for Reform Judaism]]|title=Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner in the Times|url= http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/from-the-movement-rabbi/rabbi-laura-janner-klausner-in-the-times.html|publisher=[[Movement for Reform Judaism]]| accessdate=2 June 2014}}</ref> He is the brother of [[Amos Oz]], the Israeli author.<ref name = "Times"/> David and Rabbi Laura have three children: Tali, Natan and Ella.<ref name="Elgot"/><ref>{{cite web|last1=Harpin|first1=Emma|title=Working Mothers – in pictures|url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/9575091/Emma-Harpin-Working-Mothers-in-pictures.html?image=6|work = [[The Daily Telegraph]]| accessdate=2 June 2014}}</ref>


Janner-Klausner speaks fluent Hebrew.<ref name = "Times"/> Her hobbies include [[quilting]] and [[knitting]], with an emerging interest in [[Association football]].
Janner-Klausner speaks fluent Hebrew.<ref name="Elgot"/><ref name = "Times"/> Her hobbies include [[quilting]] and [[knitting]], with an emerging interest in [[Association football]].


==See also==
==See also==

Revision as of 10:21, 22 November 2014

Rabbi
Laura Janner-Klausner
Personal
Born
Laura Janner

London
ReligionJudaism
NationalityUnited Kingdom British Israel Israeli
SpouseDavid Janner-Klausner
ChildrenThree: Tali, Natan and Ella
ParentLord Janner of Braunstone
DenominationReform Judaism
Alma materFaculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge
OccupationRabbi
Jewish leader
PredecessorPosition created
Websitehttp://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/leadership/rabbi-laura-janner-klausner.html
PositionSenior Rabbi[1]
OrganisationThe Movement for Reform Judaism
BeganJanuary 2011

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner (Template:Lang-he-n, born 1963) is a British-Israeli rabbi who serves as Senior Rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism.[1] Janner-Klausner grew up in London before studying Christianity at the University of Cambridge and moving to Israel in 1985, living in Jerusalem for 15 years.[2] She returned to Britain in 1999 and was ordained at Leo Baeck College, serving as Rabbi at Alyth Gardens (North Western Reform Synagogue) until 2011, when she became inaugural holder of her current position.[1]

In her position, Janner-Klausner represents a progressive Jewish voice to British Jewry and the general public, speaking on affairs including Israel, social justice, same-sex marriage, which she calls "equal marriage", and interfaith relations. Janner-Klausner is a regular broadcaster on programmes such as BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day, BBC Radio 2’s Pause for Thought and BBC One’s The Big Questions.[1]

Life and career

Early life and education

Janner-Klausner was raised in North London and attended South Hampstead High School. As a young girl, Janner-Klausner regularly travelled to constituency surgeries on the weekend with her father, Lord Janner of Braunstone QC, who was Labour Member of Parliament for Leicester for 27 years.[3]

Janner-Klausner’s great-uncle, Emeritus Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Sir Israel Brodie, had a profound influence on her growing up.[2]

Initially a member of Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue, a congregation affiliated to the United Synagogue of Orthodox British Jews, Janner-Klausner has frequently cited her Bat Mitzvah as a pivotal moment. Aged 12, she read a short excerpt of Hebrew text, A Psalm of David, translated into English on a Sunday, instead of cantillating the portion of Torah required of boys on a Sabbath morning.[2] Janner-Klausner was so disaffected by the experience she left Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue the very next day. Janner-Klausner subsequently became involved in youth activities at Alyth Gardens Reform Synagogue near Golders Green, developing a passion for Reform Judaism’s egalitarian religious values and expressing interest in becoming a Rabbi as young as 13.[2]

Janner-Klausner spent her gap year in Israel and was a representative of British Reform Judaism at the renowned Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz (The Institute for Youth Leaders from Abroad), an educational institution in Jerusalem that prepares young adults to take leadership roles in Zionist youth movements.[2][4] She returned to London in 1982 and became a founding member of RSY-Netzer, the youth movement for Reform Judaism in Britain, which was born out of the Youth Association of Synagogues in Great Britain and now attracts hundreds of participants on summer camps and youth events in Britain and Israel each summer.[5][6]

Janner-Klausner studied Divinity at Cambridge, where she was taught by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury. She studied with Professor Linda Woodhead, Professor in the sociology of religion at Lancaster University and "one of the world’s leading experts on religion".[7] Janner-Klausner was on the Union of Jewish Students executive and ran the Cambridge Israel Society and Progressive Jewish Society, but described her time there as "pretty horrible" after receiving anti-Semitic comments in the then Protestant-dominated faculty.[4]

Career in Israel

Following her graduation in 1985, aged 22, Janner-Klausner made moved to Israel and began teaching Jewish history, Judaism and youth leadership at the Machon L'Madrichei Chutz La'Aretz.[1]

Janner-Klausner specialised in teaching the "positive" aspects of Jewish identity and peoplehood, instead of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. She worked there continuously until 1998 and would later become the Director of its English-speaking department.[2]

In 1992, Janner-Klausner started working at Melitz, an educational centre specialising in Jewish peoplehood based in Jerusalem, and later served as Director of the Centre for Christian Encounters with Israel, where she helped train Palestinian tour guides in Bethlehem and Jerusalem.[1] Janner-Klausner also led Israeli-Palestinian dialogue facilitation for the European Union’s "The People's Peace" programme, following the Oslo I Accord of 1993.[1]

Before returning to live in London, Janner-Klausner had studied at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Jerusalem and acquired postgraduate degrees in Community Centre Management at the Hebrew University and Jewish Communal Service with a focus on Jewish education at Brandeis University, Massachusetts.[1]

Return to London

In 1999, Janner-Klausner returned to London with her husband David and three children, Tali, Natan and Ella, citing the ideological intensity of living in Jerusalem as a primary reason.[2] She soon began training to become a rabbi at Leo Baeck College, serving many congregations as a trainee Rabbi including Alyth Gardens (North Western Reform Synagogue), the synagogue where she had developed a passion for Reform Judaism and its egalitarian values as a teenager.[4] Following her ordination, Janner-Klausner became Rabbi at Alyth Gardens.

In 2008, Janner-Klausner featured in a BBC radio series by Jonathan Freedland entitled British Jews and the Dream of Zion, discussing the United Nations’ 1947 Partition Plan for Palestine.[8] Her abilities as a broadcaster led to many more appearances on programmes including BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and BBC One’s The Big Questions.

Whilst Rabbi at Alyth Gardens, Janner-Klausner began chairing British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli human rights organisation.[9]

By 2011, Janner-Klausner had served for eight years as Rabbi at Alyth Gardens (North Western Reform Synagogue), a community with 3000 members.[10]

Senior Rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism

In July 2011, Janner-Klausner became first Senior Rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism, a position initially entitled "Movement Rabbi".[11] Chair-elect of the Movement for Reform Judaism, Jenny Pizer, said Janner-Klausner was "an influential broadcaster and writer, a great teacher and a popular rabbi of one of our flourishing communities".[11]

The Assembly of Rabbis for the Movement for Reform Judaism created the position to increase the voice of Reform Judaism and represent its constituent communities on a national level, both within the British Jewish community and general public.[11]

The Movement Rabbi position was not designed to rival the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, then held by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, but to represent a Reform or progressive Jewish voice alongside his.[2]

Shortly after being appointed, Janner-Klausner set improving periodically fraught relations between the Orthodox and Reform Judaism as part of her agenda. On the selection of Ephraim Mirvis as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations in December 2012, Janner-Klausner said: "I welcome the appointment of Rabbi Mirvis as another powerful voice for British Jewry. I look forward to working closely with him as a partner on areas of common interests to the Jewish and wider community".[12]

Advocacy and views

Feminism and Judaism

Janner-Klausner is a feminist and believes egalitarianism and religion should go hand in hand.[13]

In May 2012, writing for the New Statesman, Janner-Klausner criticised gender segregation and "the silencing of women’s voices among certain fundamentalist circles in Israel and in the Jewish diaspora".[14]

Later that year, two women on the RSY-Netzer gap year programme, Shnat Netzer, were detained and held in a Jerusalem police station for wearing religious garments and participating in a protest at the Western Wall complex organised by Women of the Wall, a group that campaigns for gender equality at the site.[15][16] Janner-Klausner voiced her support for Women of the Wall and stated she was "proud" of the women who were detained and subsequently released without charge, saying their decision was "a positive outcome of their education".[17]

In September 2013, Janner-Klausner spoke with Julie Siddiqi, executive director of the Islamic Society of Britain, at a Cambridge University event entitled "Feminine frontiers of faith", discussing women of faith in leadership roles.[18]

Janner-Klausner was selected in 2013 for the BBC’s 100 Women Conference, a series of debates and discussions on the role of women across the world, whose guests included faith leaders, social activists and politicians.[19]

Gay marriage

Janner-Klausner strongly supports gay marriage, which she calls "equal marriage".[20]

In March 2012, Janner-Klausner appeared on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze, defending marriage equality in response to the question "Should gay people be allowed to marry, or will that irreparably damage society?" Referring to the legalisation of gay marriage, Janner-Klausner said "our starting point, middle point and finishing point is about equality".[20]

In March 2014, gay marriage was legalised in Britain. Janner-Klausner signed an open letter from Christian and Jewish faith leaders including Danny Rich, chief executive of Liberal Judaism, and Alan Wilson, the Bishop of Buckingham, voicing support for gay marriage. The leaders said they would "rejoice" in the introduction of gay marriage.[21]

Interfaith relations

Janner-Klausner is a prominent voice on British interfaith relations and regularly meets representatives of Christian and Muslim communities.[22]

She is a President of the Council of Christians and Jews and has worked with organisations including the Three Faiths Forum and the Interfaith Network for the UK.[23]

Having studied Christian theology at university, Janner-Klausner has worked with the Methodist Church,[24] the Church of Scotland[25] and the Quakers to deepen interfaith ties.[22]

In May 2013, following the murder of Lee Rigby, Janner-Klausner joined faith leaders in solidarity with Woolwich residents and its Muslim community at the Greenwich Islamic Centre. With far-right groups including the English Defence League and British National Party organising protests in response to the murder by a Muslim extremist, she stated that "a single extreme act… does not reflect on the wider British Muslim community".[26]

Shortly before the Passover festival in April 2014, Janner-Klausner hosted at her home a mock Passover meal with representatives of Christian, Hindu and Sikh communities.

Israel

Janner-Klausner is a progressive Zionist and believes Israel should act as the spiritual and intellectual centre of Judaism and the Jewish people.[27] She supports two-states for Israel and Palestine as the sustainable and just solution to the present conflict, having facilitated Israeli-Palestinian dialogue for the European Union whilst living in Jerusalem and led tours to the West Bank with British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights.[27]

In July 2012, Janner-Klausner criticised Israeli policy towards refugees and asylum seekers in Israel from Eritrea, Sudan and South Sudan, suggesting these groups were "left in limbo" by Israeli policy. Israel had stopped processing individual applications for refugee status, something Janner-Klausner decried as "unsustainable – materially, morally and politically".[28]

Religious power

Janner-Klausner is especially interested in the relationship between religion and power.

Janner-Klausner has criticised religious fundamentalists, proposing that literalist interpretations of religious text "worship words instead of God". At the Bath Literature Festival in March 2013, she spoke about the importance of challenging religious belief and suggested "we need to lock faith and doubt together".[29]

At the Limmud Conference in December 2013, Janner-Klausner delivered a JDOV speech about "Power and its Discontents", addressing themes of power and powerlessness in Judaism,[30] Before the speech at JDOV or "Jewish Dreams, Observations and Visions", a British Jewish organisation inspired by TED talks,[31] she wrote: "I strongly believe in inverting the power pyramid so that everyone claims their opportunity to play their part in decisions that affect themselves and their communities".[30]

Janner-Klausner believes enabling colleagues to receive opportunities in the public sphere is as an important responsibility and does not believe the Senior Rabbi role makes her a chief rabbi or holder of special religious authority.[2] In April 2013, Rabbi Mark Goldsmith, Chairman of the Assembly of Rabbis to the Movement for Reform Judaism, remarked that Janner-Klausner was "not our only public face to the world. Part of her role is to enable all of us to be more outward-facing rabbis".[32]

Janner-Klausner is currently writing a book with a former colleague at the Movement for Reform Judaism and future movement worker of RSY-Netzer, Ben Crome, on the relationship between religion and power.

Social justice

Janner-Klausner represented Progressive Judaism at the World Economic Forum’s 2012 Civil Society Consultation in Geneva.[33] Appearing alongside representatives of civil society, she spoke about how big businesses could better build trust. Discussions contributed to the agenda for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos in 2013.

In January 2013, Janner-Klausner help launch Enough Food For Everyone IF, a campaign urging British Prime Minister David Cameron to use his presidency of the G8 to address world hunger.[34] Speaking to 1000 people at Somerset House, Janner-Klausner said: "As Jews, when we say the blessing after meals we thank God for the food we have. If you believe in God, or don’t believe in God, we know we have enough food to give".[34]

Janner-Klausner spoke to an audience of 45,000 people at the Big IF rally at Hyde Park in June 2013 to call on governments to tackle the causes of hunger ahead of the G8 meeting in Northern Ireland.[35] She congratulated the contribution of Jewish and other faith communities in coordinating the campaign and said: "We need to demand from the G8 that food is given to all, wherever we live".[36]

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner gave a speech and concluding prayer representing the Jewish community at the End Hunger Fast vigil in Westminster in April 2014.[37]

Jewish ritual

In March 2013, Janner-Klausner defended the importance of Jewish religious rituals including Kosher animal slaughter and brit milah or male circumcision. A YouGov study prior to this had indicated that large portions of the British public opposed these rituals.[38] Janner-Klausner suggested the results "indicated a worrying intolerance".[38]

Personal life

Janner-Klausner was introduced by an aunt to her husband, David, in Jerusalem in 1986.[2] They married in 1988.[39]

Dr David Janner-Klausner was Programme and Planning Director at the United Jewish Israel Appeal and currently works as Director of Business Development at Commonplace Digital Ltd.[40] He is the brother of Amos Oz, the Israeli author.[40] David and Rabbi Laura have three children: Tali, Natan and Ella.[39][41]

Janner-Klausner speaks fluent Hebrew.[39][40] Her hobbies include quilting and knitting, with an emerging interest in Association football.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Movement for Reform Judaism. "Senior Rabbi to the Movement for Reform Judaism". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014. Cite error: The named reference "Senior" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Rocker, Simon. "Why I'm not the Reform rival to the Chief Rabbi". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014. Cite error: The named reference "Not" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ "Greville Janner Biography". Greville Janner, Lord Janner of Braunstone QC. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  4. ^ a b c Wachmann, Doreen. "Reform greeting for the new chief Rabbi". Jewish Telegraph. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  5. ^ Southend and District Reform Synagogue. "SDRS and 'The Reform Movement'". Southend and District Reform Synagogue. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  6. ^ RSY-Netzer. "What is RSY-Netzer?". RSY-Netzer. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  7. ^ Taylor, Matthew. "RSA Podcasts". Royal Society of Arts. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  8. ^ BBC Radio 4. "British Jews and the Dream of Zion". BBC. Retrieved 2 June 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Mark, Goldsmith. "Sermon: We need a different kind of Messiah, Rosh HaShanah 2011". North Western Reform Synagogue. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  10. ^ North Western Reform Synagogue. "Past Rabbis". North Western Reform Synagogue. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  11. ^ a b c Movement for Reform Judaism. "New Voice for British Jews" (Press release). Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  12. ^ Shaviv, Miriam. "UK Jewry names its next Chief Rabbi". Times of Israel. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  13. ^ Janner-Klausner, Laura. "Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner: Women of the Wall". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  14. ^ Movement for Reform Judaism. "Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner in the New Statesman". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  15. ^ Rashty, Sandy. "Two UK teens arrested at Kotel protest". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  16. ^ Sheinman, Anna. "Women of the Wall Arrested". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  17. ^ Rocker, Simon. "Reform welcome for Wall compromise". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  18. ^ University of Cambridge. "Feminine Frontiers of Faith". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  19. ^ "100 Women: conference in full". BBC News. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  20. ^ a b Janner-Klausner, Laura. "The Moral Maze: Gay Marriage". BBC. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  21. ^ The Huffington Post UK. "Gay Marriage: Bishops And Rabbis Sign Letter Saying They 'Rejoice' In New Law". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  22. ^ a b Williams, Andrew. "Quaker Committee for Christian and Interfaith Relations e-network mailing Summer 2013". Quakers in Britain. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  23. ^ "Patron, Presidents, and Vice Presidents". Council of Christians and Jews. Retrieved 3 June 2014.
  24. ^ Gee, Revd Ruth (1 December 2013). "Glimpses in Israel and Palestine". The President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  25. ^ Movement for Reform Judaism. "Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner in dialogue with Church of Scotland". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  26. ^ Movement for Reform Judaism. "Showing solidarity in Woolwich". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  27. ^ a b British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights. "Trips". British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  28. ^ Janner-Klausner, Laura. "If the prophets could see Israel now". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  29. ^ Maude, David. "Bath Literature Festival: Believers lose faith in the role of religion in the classroom". The Independent. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  30. ^ a b JDOV. "Laura Janner-Klausner; Power and its Discontents". JHub. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  31. ^ Shkolnikov, Alina. "Five Inspiring JDOV Talks from Limmud UK". Presentense Group. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  32. ^ Rocker, Simon. "Janner-Klausner 'wrong' over Thatcher funeral". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  33. ^ Movement for Reform Judaism. "Rabbi Laura's Global Dialogue". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  34. ^ a b Winograd, Zoe. "WJR and Tzedek sign up to hunger campaign". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  35. ^ University of Cambridge. "Speaker spotlight – Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner and Julie Siddiqi". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  36. ^ Islamic Society of Britain. "The Big IF Event: London". YouTube. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  37. ^ Movement for Reform Judaism. "Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner at the End Hunger Fast vigil". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  38. ^ a b Rocker, Simon. "Forty five percent of Britons ready to ban shechita". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  39. ^ a b c Elgot, Jessica (17 November 2014). "How Britain's Only Female Head Of Faith Took On The Religious Establishment, And Won". Huffington Post. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  40. ^ a b c Movement for Reform Judaism. "Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner in the Times". Movement for Reform Judaism. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
  41. ^ Harpin, Emma. "Working Mothers – in pictures". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2 June 2014.

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