Monday, June 30, 2008

Rabbi row to leave Jews leaderless

Dublin's Jews could find themselves without a rabbi in four months unless community members can resolve a crisis over who will lead their Terenure congregation.

This comes after the synagogue's council failed to approve the presumptive nominee to the post of congregational rabbi following the retirement of Chief Rabbi Dr Yaakov Pearlman.

Rabbi Zalman Lent, who put himself forward for the post with the backing of the Jewish Representative Council, has resigned in protest from his current position as youth and outreach rabbi with four months' notice.

A significant number of community members have reacted with outrage and have petitioned the synagogue's council to convene an extraordinary general meeting, which must be called before 16 July, to resolve the impasse.

Community sources say the synagogue council, which is responsible only to dues-paying members of the modern orthodox Dublin Hebrew Congregation, is against appointing Lent, who belongs to the Chabad-Lubavitch hasidic movement, because they believe it would give the sect too much power in Ireland.
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