Tony Bayfield

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Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield CBE
Born Ilford, Essex, UK
Nationality British
Occupation Reform rabbi
President of the Movement for Reform Judaism
Children 3

Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield CBE is a Reform rabbi and President of the Movement for Reform Judaism,[1] the second largest organisation of synagogues in Britain.

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 was head of the Movement for Reform Judaism from 1994 (when the organisation was known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain) until 2011.[1] He is now President of the organisation.[1]

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. Bayfield has also written about Christian–Jewish reconciliation.[2]

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 United F.C.

Bayfield was awarded a CBE in the Queen's New Years Honours List 2010 for services to Reform Judaism.[3]

Publications

Sources

  • (Source: The Movement for Reform Judaism: )
  • (Secondary Source: The Guardian Newspaper )

References

External links

  • Rabbi Bayfield's pages in The Guardian newspaper (UK)
  • Rabbi Bayfield's pages on The Movement for Reform Judaism website
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