Tony Bayfield
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Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield CBE | |
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| Born | Ilford, Essex, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Reform rabbi President of the Movement for Reform Judaism |
| Children | 3 |
| Part of a series on |
| Jews and Judaism |
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Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield CBE is a Reform rabbi and President of the Movement for Reform Judaism.
He was born in Ilford, Essex UK in 1946. Educated at the Royal Liberty Grammar School in Romford and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He read law, had a doctoral place at the Cambridge Institute for Criminology and then moved to the Leo Baeck College to train as a rabbi. He received rabbinic ordination (semichah) in 1972 - from Rabbis John Rayner, Hugo Gryn and Louis Jacobs.
He was a congregational rabbi in Surrey for a decade, then director of the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in Finchley. He is was head of the Movement for Reform Judaism from 1994 (when the organisation was known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain) until March 2011. He is now President of the organisation.
The Reform Movement is the second largest organisation of synagogues in Britain. It is the non-conformist section of the community to Chief Rabbi Professor Sir Jonathan Sack’s majority orthodox community. Despite being on opposite sides of a passionate theological divide, Orthodox Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks and Rabbi Tony Bayfield are good friends and have been so since their Cambridge days.
Bayfield is a specialist in modern Jewish thought and contemporary Reform Judaism. He also specialises in Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim dialogue and has published quite widely in this area.
He is a widower with three children and six grandchildren. His younger daughter, Miriam Berger, received semichah in July 2006 and is a well-respected rabbi in her own right. He is a member of North Western Reform Synagogue (Alyth Gardens). He is a passionate supporter of West Ham.
Bayfield was awarded a CBE in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2010 for services to Reform Judaism.[1]
Bayfield has also written about Christian-Jewish reconciliation. [2]
Publications
- Prejudice - Jewish responses (Publisher: Michael Goulston Educational Foundation, Duke Street House 1973)
- Churban: The murder of the Jews of Europe (Jewish responses) ISBN 978-0-907372-00-4
- Sinai, Law and Responsible Autonomy: Reform Judaism and the Halakhic Tradition ISBN 978-0-947884-09-3
- He Kissed Him and They Wept: Towards a Theology of Partnership ISBN 978-0-334-02826-0
- Dialogue With a Difference ISBN 978-0-334-01980-0
- Islam and Global Dialogue ISBN 978-0-7546-5307-3
- Beyond the Dysfunctional Family: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Dialogue With Each Other and With Britain ISBN 978-1-468-16747-4