John Rayner

John Rayner CBE (* May 30, 1924 in Berlin, † September 19, 2005 in London, actually Hans Sigismund Framers ) was a British rabbi of the Liberal Judaism.

Life

Hans Sigismund Framers were denied with the Nuremberg Laws in 1935 the normal school in Berlin. 1939 sent his parents, Ferdinand Framers and Charlotte Landshut, who were secular Jews, him. A Kindertransport from Nazi Germany to England, they themselves failed to leave, they were victims of the Holocaust

Framers lived in a liberal-minded Anglican pastor's family and attended school in Durham. He then took on a new name and was from 1943 to 1947 soldier in the British Army, which he left with the rank of captain. Rayner began in October 1947 with a grant provided a study of new languages ​​, philosophy and Hebrew at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, whose first stage he graduated in 1950 with the Bachelor. During his studies he worked as a Jewish lay priest. Rayner received on 21 June 1953, the ordination, and was first employed in the town of "South London Liberal Synagogue " in Streatham, which saw itself as a community of liberal Judaism. In this community, circumcision and bar mitzvahs were not required, and they also did not settle the marriage or questions of everyday design such as hairstyle and clothing. Since 1955 he was married to Jane Priscilla Heilbronn, with whom he had three children. In 1957, he joined as an assistant rabbi at the " St John 's Wood Liberal Synagogue " and became in 1961 Chief Rabbi. In 1963 he took a sabbatical for two years for graduate studies at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati. After that, he was until 1989 active in his church in London again. He was chairman of the " Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues " in the United Kingdom and emissary for the World Union for Progressive Judaism. The Leo Baeck College developed under its influence since 1961, since 1969 as Vice President, at a reputablen school for rabbis, where he also taught liturgy and rabbinic literature. The college eventually appointed him still honorary president.

Rayner did not confine his liberal attitude to the synagogue, but he was also in the political life of Great Britain. So he joined the Conservative Party and its shadow minister Enoch Powell opposed publicly, as this required a racially motivated immigration policy on April 20, 1968, it received wide acclaim. He sat down, and the general public, with Orthodox Judaism and its British chairman Jonathan Sacks apart.

Rayner was the author of two liberal prayer books. His writings include the subjects of Jewish life, of Zionism and the Jewish-Christian dialogue. Rayner also joined publicity on radio and television.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993.

Writings (selection )

• The Practices of Liberal Judaism. Union of Liberal & Progressive Synagogues, 1958
• Liberal Judaism in modern times. Lecture. Association f religiously - liberal Judaism, Bern 1961
• Guide to Jewish Marriage. Union of Liberal & Progressive Synagogues, 1975
• Judaism for Today: An Ancient Faith with a Modern Message. Union of Liberal & Progressive Synagogues, 1978
• David J. Goldberg, The Jewish people: their history and Their religion. Viking, Harmondsworth 1987
• An Understanding of Judaism. Berghahn, New York in 1997
• Jewish Religious Law: A Progressive Perspective. Berghahn, New York 1998
• A Jewish Understanding of the World. Berghahn, New York 1998
• Principles of Jewish Ethics from a progressive point of view. London: New Jewish initiative for social justice in 1998
• Signposts to the Messianic Age: Sermons and Lectures. Vallentine Mitchell, London 2005