Jewish Leader Says Description of British Jewish Leadership As Irrelevant Was Harsh and Tactless

An Anglo-Jewish leader has responded sharply to the recent criticism by British Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovitz of the state of the leadership of British Jewry. Captain David Tack, outgoing chairman of the Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women (AJEX) told the organization’s annual conference that Rabbi Jakobovitz’s remarks were harsh and tactless.

The Chief Rabbi, in a recent speech, described British-Jewish leadership as “archaic, rigid, remote and irrelevant” and claimed that it “has alienated not only the young but also the most talented and valuable elements in the community, especially the intellectuals who have virtually disappeared from the communal list of leaders.”

The Chief Rabbi, who once held a pulpit in New York, urged Anglo-Jewry “to follow the American example of relying on a trained and highly professional Jewish civil service to administer its institutions.”

Tack, who served an unprecedented three terms as chairman of AJEX, said the Chief Rabbi’s sweeping generalization “does less than justice to Jewish voluntary workers who give their time and energy for the causes they hold dear.” He said that if the time ever came when volunteer communal workers were replaced by an entirely professional staff, “this will be the beginning of the end of Anglo-Jewry as we know it.” The new national chairman of AJEX is R. Shelley.