About half of the 700 members of the New West End Synagogue decided at a meeting here last night to establish a new congregation with Dr. Louis Jacobs as spiritual leader. The synagogue’s officers and board of management were discharged last week by the United Synagogue, Britain’s governing synagogue body, in a dispute over the earlier appointment of Dr. Jacobs as Minister of the congregation.
Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie, spiritual head of the United Synagogue, had declined to approve Dr. Jacobs’ appointment as minister of the New West End Synagogue on the grounds that his views are not inline with Orthodox Judaism. The United Synagogue Council then deposed the congregation’s officers when the latter proceeded to appoint Dr. Jacobs to the post over the Chief Rabbi’s objections.
Since the property of the New West End Synagogue belongs to the United Synagogue, the new congregation will have to find a new place of worship which, according to last night’s decision, will be called the “New London Synagogue.” Chief Rabbi Brodie, meanwhile, has called an emergency meeting of all Orthodox rabbis and ministers in the country to be held tomorrow to deal with the entire issue.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
