Top UK Sephardi rabbi who hailed acceptance of gays to step down as clerical judge

Britain’s top Sephardi rabbi announced on Wednesday that he is to step down from his position as a judge on a rabbinical court. He also agreed to have his rulings vetted by senior colleagues and apologized for some of his comments. But he will keep his rabbinic position following a compromise deal intended to end a controversy which had threatened to split British Orthodox Jews.

Rabbi Joseph Dweck, who serves as senior rabbi at London’s S&P Sephardi Community, came under fire after saying at a lecture last month that societal acceptance of homosexuality is a “fantastic development” because it opens the door to a more loving society.

During the 90-minute lecture, given at the Ner Yisrael synagogue in northwest London, Dweck had emphasized that homosexual acts are forbidden by Torah, but that the growing tolerance for feminism and homosexuality had residual benefits for society at large.

“[W]e have to see ultimately how it is we deal with it in terms of Torah and society,” he had said. “If we do not hang our prejudices at the door when we deal with it, and don’t look at Torah as it is and what it is saying to us, and stop with the insane bigotry and prejudice we’ve got, we will be on the out and society will move forward because [God] doesn’t wait for anybody. He is taking His world into love.”

Subsequently, influential Orthodox leaders around the world took issue not only with that talk but also with many of Dweck’s rulings in matters of both Jewish law and Jewish theology, leading to calls for him to be fired.

At the end of June, Israel’s chief Sephardic rabbi, Yitzhak Yosef, called on Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, to resolve the situation.

After almost a month of discussions and meetings, Mirvis, along with senior rabbis from the London Beth Din, reached an agreement with Dweck that they hope will end the controversy.

In a statement released on the website of the S&P Sephardi Community, where Dweck serves as senior rabbi, Dweck announced, “I have decided to stand aside from my role as Dayan on the Beth Din,” referring to his role as a judge on the Sephardi rabbinic court.

Dweck also agreed that in future he would not make rulings on matters of Jewish law or theology without first clearing them with senior colleagues.

“I offered to consult with one of the Dayanim present, or with rabbinic colleagues,” he wrote, “regarding future halakhic and hashkafic teachings.”

Dweck also admitted that some of his prior rulings had been erroneous.

“I expressed regret for the carelessness of some of my teachings which were incorrect,” he wrote in the statement. “It is clear to me that there were instances where I spoke in a fashion that was inappropriate and imprudent. There were times, in the flow of discussion, when I irresponsibly applied halakhic rulings and hashkafic views. I also, at times, did not fully explain their context, which risked confusing or misleading people.”

The rabbi also apologized for the remarks he had made about British rabbis.

“I regret… making disparaging remarks about rabbinic colleagues,” he said. “This was inappropriate and, given my position, quite damaging. I apologize wholeheartedly.”

A statement from the synagogue board said that Dweck “continued to enjoy the overwhelming support of our community and the entire Board.”

“We are now delighted to be able to announce, that… the matter has now been brought to a close,” it read.

Mirvis and the committee praised Dweck for his contribution to the community.

“The Review Committee recognizes that since his arrival in London some three years’ ago, Rabbi Joseph Dweck has had considerable success in encouraging greater attendance at Synagogue services. He has inspired many to be proud of their Judaism and to embrace a more committed Jewish way of life,” they said in a statement.

The committee also endorsed Dweck’s position as rabbi of the synagogue.

“The view of the Review Committee that it is appropriate for Rabbi Joseph Dweck to continue to serve as the Senior Rabbi of the S&P Sephardi Community,” they said.

Last month, Dweck canceled his annual summer job as scholar in residence at a major Sephardic summer institute in New Jersey to deal with the fallout from his comments. The decision was supported by the review committee.

Rabbis from the UK, Israel and the US harshly criticized Dweck for his talk on homosexuality and for many of his rulings.

The head rabbi of the prestigious northeast British yeshiva at Gateshead, Rav Shraga Feivel Zimmerman, wrote a public letter earlier this month in which he wrote that Dweck was “not fit to serve” due to his “limited knowledge, weak halachic reasoning skills, and lack of training.”

And in the wake of Zimmerman’s denunciation, a group of anonymous rabbis warned Mirvis that “if Joseph Dweck is maintained in office as a rabbi, whether it is fully or even partially, in spite of all the letters received from highly respected Orthodox rabbinical authorities in Gateshead and in Israel and worldwide, Chief Rabbi Mirvis should realize that he will be responsible for the splitting of Anglo-Orthodoxy and lose his credibility as a Chief Rabbi to a large consensus of Orthodox communities.”

One of the rabbis who spearheaded the outcry against Dweck was Rabbi Aharon Bassous, who heads a small Sephardic community in London. Bassous’s brother, David, had unsuccessfully applied for the position of senior rabbi of the S&P, the role to which Dweck was eventually appointed.

None of the rabbis who vocally opposed Dweck made any immediate public response to the decision of Mirvis and his committee.

Dweck studied in Jerusalem under the tutelage of the late Sephardi chief rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, whose granddaughter, Margalit, he married. Thus Dweck is a nephew by marriage of the current Sephardic chief rabbi.

When the scandal broke, Yitzhak Yosef initially condemned Dweck without naming him directly. However, he subsequently agreed to delegate the resolution of the situation to the London rabbinate.

“Seeing as I am not fully familiar with the context of Jewish community life in England, I request that the chief Rabbi of England take responsibility for dealing with the matter and reach a decision based on his understanding of the situation,” Yosef wrote in a letter. “Whatever he decides will be acceptable to us in Israel.”

Before coming to London, Dweck served as rabbi of Congregation Shaare Shalom, a Syrian Sephardic synagogue of over 700 members, in Brooklyn, New York, from 1999 to 2014. For the last five years of his time in the US, he was also headmaster of Barkai Yeshivah, a large Jewish day school in Brooklyn.

Jenni Frazer and JTA contributed to this report.