Wider Rabbinic Role
Liberal Judaism
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah is a member of the Liberal Judaism Rabbinic Conference, which meets monthly at the Montagu Centre in Central London.
She was on the Rabbinic Working Party on Same-Sex Commitment Ceremonies, established in 2000, which resulted in the development of a new LJ policy on lesbian and gay Jews and same-sex relationships and the creation of an anthology of liturgies, entitled, ‘Covenant of Love. Service of Commitment for Same-Sex Couples’ published to coincide with the Civil Partnership Act coming into force in December 2005 (Liberal Judaism, 2005). Having chaired LJ Publications (2003-2009), she is currently serving as the senior rabbinic representative on the LJ Rabbinic Salaries Working Party.
Rabbi Sarah regularly contributes sermons and commentaries on the Torah portion of the week to the Liberal Judaism web-site and in December 2007 LJ published a booklet setting out her thinking about the development of Liberal Judaism in the 21st century, entitled ‘Compelling Commitments – A New Approach to Living as a Liberal Jew’, which is available, both on the LJ web-site, and in hard-copy (cost: £35.50 +p+p).
University Chaplaincy
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah is Associate Jewish Chaplain at both Sussex and Brighton Universities and can be contacted via both universities.
Available to any Jewish student, her role is, in particular, to support students – both individually and collectively – who belong to the congregations of Liberal Judaism. In addition to this, Rabbi Sarah is also available to students who have no denominational affiliation but are looking for rabbinic support which is accepting and non-judgemental and acknowledges Jews with a wide variety of backgrounds, experiences and life situations, including those from families where only one parent is Jewish, those whose only Jewish parent is their father, those who are themselves partnered or married to a non-Jew, and those who identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Leo Baeck College
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah has been continuously associated with Leo Baeck College since she first became a rabbinic student in October 1984.
Following ordination in 1989, Rabbi Sarah participated in Rabbinic In-Service Training courses, joining the RIST Team that organises post-ordination training in 1994, and later serving as its chair (1996-1902). During this time she also co-taught both the Biblical Hebrew programme and the Spirituality course from 1997-2002 – but the time commitment involved proved too demanding once she became rabbi of BHPS. In 2005 she became lecturer in Liberal Judaism.
Rabbi Sarah has also served as tutor of individual rabbinic students from 1994-2009, and continues to mentor newly-ordained rabbis, including those who undertook their internship with her at Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue as part of their rabbinic training. She also continues to contribute to the pre-ordination Practical Rabbinics programme on an ad hoc sessional basis as required.
Interfaith
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah first became involved in interfaith dialogue as a rabbinic student at the Leo Baeck College , where interfaith studies and engagement, in particular an annual eight-day Jewish-Christian-Muslim Conference in Germany, is an integral part of the rabbinic training programme.
Since becoming a rabbi in 1989, Rabbi Sarah, has focussed, especially on Jewish-Christian-Muslim dialogue, and has been an active member of the JCM group of religious leaders, inaugurated under the auspices of the Sternberg Centre, since 1994. This JCM dialogue group published ‘A Platform Statement’ in 2005, simultaneously in Jewish, Christian and Muslim publications (see, e.g. ‘Tough Truths for Jews, Christians and Muslims’, MANNA Winter 2005), and is currently working on a book.
Having first met him at the annual Leo Baeck College JCM conference, and then, subsequently, got to know him in the Sternberg Centre JCM group, Imam Dr Abduljalil Sajid, who first came to work in Brighton in the 1970s, has been an on-going dialogue partner for many years. Since becoming the rabbi at Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue in 2000, Rabbi Sarah has also met regularly with her Christian colleagues, in particular, with the Revd. Cynthia Parks of the Dorset Gardens Methodist Church – and with the Chaplains involved at both Sussex and Brighton Universities in her capacity as Associate Jewish Chaplain.
During 2009, Rabbi Sarah gave a paper, entitled, ‘The World stands on Truth, Justice and Peace’ to a Jewish-Christian-Muslim Seminar at Sussex University (03.03.09). She also participated in an Interfaith Contact Group Women in Faith Dialogue Event held at Brighton & Hove Progressive Synagogue.
(17.03.09), speaking about ‘Women as Agents of Change’. Later in the year she contributed to an interfaith event at Worth Abbey (18.10.09), with Zoroastrian, Unitarian, Muslim and Hindu speakers, on the theme of ‘Material Wealth: Blessing of God or Root of all Evil?’ and gave ‘A Jewish Reflection on Forgiveness’ at an Interfaith Week Event with Michael Henderson, author of ‘No Enemy to Conquer – Forgiveness in an Unforgiving World’ (Baylor University Press, Waco, Texas, 2009), held at the Friends’ Meeting House in Brighton (15.11.09).
Rabbis for Human Rights
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah first became engaged in Israel and the issues arising from the on-going conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and between Israel and its near neighbours, when she lived on a small left-wing kibbutz in the Western Galilee, a kilometre from the Lebanese border, from November 1978 to June 1979 – during which time, rockets were regularly fired by militants based in Lebanon into Israel.
Over the years, Rabbi Sarah has made frequents visits to Israel, and in the past ten years, in particular, has engaged actively in progressive initiatives aimed at: creating a more Jewishly pluralistic environment, in which progressive streams of Judaism have an equal voice alongside orthodox streams; addressing societal problems and inequalities within Israel; developing dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, and working for a just peace involving the establishment of a viable State of Palestine alongside a secure State of Israel.
In addition to supporting a variety of progressive projects through the New Israel Fund, Rabbi Sarah, like a number of her Liberal and Reform rabbinic colleagues is a member of the UK Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights, an organisation that in addition to its general human rights activities, works in conjunction with Israel’s Human-Rights Watch, B’tzelem, to address the human rights issues that arise on a daily basis out of the continuing occupation of the Palestinian territories.