Israeli synagogue disinvites ‘rejecter’ rabbi

An Israeli synagogue withdrew an invitation to a British-born rabbi to speak to the congregation after learning he had been named as a “mesarev” or “rejecter” for refusing to comply with a ruling by the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations.

Rabbi Saul Djanogly is locked in a six-figure financial dispute with his father, David, and his brother, Avi. The matter is due to be heard in the High Court.

The rabbi, a well-known figure in adult Jewish education, has a long parallel career in wealth management and financial investment.

Details of the dispute have been heard by two sets of Jewish religious judges. First by the head of the Federation of Synagogues Beth Din, Dayan Yisroel Yaakov Lichtenstein, and later by the Beth Din of the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (UOHC) in Golders Green. Both ruled against Rabbi Djanogly.

Dayan Lichtenstein considered submissions from the two parties for three years before making his ruling.

However, Rabbi Djanogly did not accept the judgment and the disputants took the matter to the UOHC for this second hearing.

When Dayan Dunner, Dayan Cohn and Dayan Eisner of the UOHC also ruled against him, Rabbi Djanogly again did not accept their ruling. In return, the UOHC rabbinate “regrettably” found him to be a “mesarev l’beis din”.

Those given the label mesarev are refused honours, such as an aliyah, in congregations aware of the ruling. It is a ruling more often applied to men who refuse their spouses a get [Jewish religious divorce].

Rabbi Djanogly, who moved to Ra’anana with his wife Anne in 2019, was invited to give a Shabbat pre-shacharit shiur (sermon before the morning service) at Eretz Hemdah, a synagogue which is part of an institute for training rabbis, and which has a large following in the religious Zionist community.

In publicity announcing his invitation, congregants learned that “Rabbi Djanogly’s passion is adult Jewish education” and that he is much in demand as a speaker on this subject internationally”.

But the synagogue’s executive decided to “disinvite” him in what it said was a unanimous response.

One member of the executive said withdrawing the invitation was “the correct decision in the circumstances”.