Tony Bayfield

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Anthony Michael "Tony" Bayfield[1][2] Template:Post-nominals is a Reform rabbi and former President of the Movement for Reform Judaism,[3] the second largest organisation of synagogues in Britain.

Early life and education

Bayfield was born in 1946[2] in Ilford, Essex (now in Greater London), the elder son of Sheila (née Mann) and Ron Bayfield, a head teacher.

He was educated at the Royal Liberty Grammar School in Romford and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He studied law and had a doctoral place at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology and then moved to the Leo Baeck College to train as a rabbi. He received rabbinic ordination (semichah) in 1972[4] from rabbis John Rayner, Hugo Gryn and Louis Jacobs.

Career

After ten years as a congregational rabbi at North West Surrey Synagogue, Bayfield became director of the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in Finchley in 1985.[4] He was head of the Movement for Reform Judaism from 1994 (when the organisation was known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain) until 2011.[3] From 2011 to 2016 he was President of the organisation.[3][5]

Honours and awards

Bayfield was awarded a CBE in the 2011 New Year Honours List for services to Reform Judaism.

London's National Portrait Gallery holds a photographic portrait of him by Don McCullin.[2]

Personal life

Tony Bayfield married Linda Rose, a teacher and Jewish educator in 1969; she died in 2003. In 2011, he met Jacqueline Fisher, whom he married in a small ceremony in June 2021.

Bayfield has three children[6] and six grandchildren. His younger daughter, Miriam Berger, received semichah in July 2006 and is a respected rabbi in her own right.[7]

Bayfield is a member of Finchley Reform Synagogue (FRS).

Publications

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.[8]

Works

  • Prejudice (Jewish responses) (1973). London: Michael Goulston Educational Foundation
  • Churban: The murder of the Jews of Europe (Jewish responses) (1981). London: Michael Goulston Educational Foundation Template:ISBN
  • Sinai, Law and Responsible Autonomy: Reform Judaism and the Halakhic Tradition (1993). London: Reform Synagogues of Great Britain Template:ISBN
  • (with Sidney Brichto and Eugene Fisher) He Kissed Him and They Wept: Towards a Theology of Jewish-Catholic Partnership (2001). London: SCM Press Template:ISBN
  • (with Tony Brayfield and Marcus Braybrooke) Dialogue With a Difference: Manor House Group Experience (1992). London: SCM Press Template:ISBN
  • "September 11: The Case Against Us All" in Roger Boase (ed.) Islam and Global Dialogue – Religious Pluralism and the Pursuit of Peace (2005), Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Template:ISBN
  • (with Alan Race and Abdullah Siddiqui, eds.) Beyond the Dysfunctional Family: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Dialogue With Each Other and With Britain (2012) London: CreateSpace Template:ISBN
  • Being Jewish Today – Confronting the Real Issues (2019). London: Bloomsbury Publishing Template:ISBN

References

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Sources

Template:Reform Judaism in the United Kingdom Template:Authority control