Professional career
Romain has been a full-time Tutor at Maidenhead Community Centre since 1980.
From 2007 to 2009, he chaired the Movement for Reform Judaism's Assembly of Rabbis. Since January 2015 he has chaired the Movement's Beth Din. [9]
For several years he was one of the judges for both The Times Preacher of the Year competition and the BBC's Frank Gillard Awards for religious programmes.
He is chaplain to the Jewish Police Association, [10] and until 2018 [11] chaired the Accord Coalition, [12] which he helped found [11] as an alliance of religious and non-religious groups committed to campaigning against religious discrimination in state-funded faith schools.
In 2014 he established Inter-faith leaders for Dignity in Dying (IFDiD), [13] an inter-faith group of clergy, now numbering 50 leaders of many religious affiliations who support the aims of Dignity in Dying. The group calls for a change in the law that would allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults the choice of an having themselves die. [14]
Actions and views
In July 2014, Romain welcomed Lord Carey's support for the Assisted Dying Bill, describing the former archbishop of Canterbury's intervention in the debate as "a breath of fresh air" and saying that Carey's change of view on the issue showed "it is possible to be both religious and in favour of assisted dying". [15]
In 2013, he launched a campaign for recognition of Judaism in China. [16]
His perspective on same-sex marriage is that marriage should be open to all. [17] He argues that "anyone who takes sacred religious texts literally needs to move on with the times... The Bible is not the literal word of God, but the inspiration of God, as perceived by people of that era and subject to the limitations of the period. It, therefore, has to constantly adapt according to new knowledge and new insights." [18]
He supports the legalisation of brothels, referring to Genesis and pointing out that "it is not for nothing that it [prostitution] is known as the oldest profession", adding: "It may be more messianic to want to end the sex trade altogether, but perhaps it is more religious to seek to channel it safely." [19]
In 2014, on the issue of women becoming bishops in the Church of England he was quoted as saying: "Women have long been accepted as rabbis and have gone on to occupy positions of religious authority in both major synagogues and Jewish institutions. Those who thought Judaism would collapse when this happened have been proved resoundingly wrong and I am sure the same will be found in the Church." [20]
Judaism is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion. It comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people, having originated as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Contemporary Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the cultic religious movement of ancient Israel and Judah, around the 6th/5th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions. Religious Jews regard Judaism as their means of observing the Mosaic covenant, which was established between God and the Israelites, their ancestors. Along with Samaritanism, to which it is closely related, Judaism is one of the two oldest Abrahamic religions.
Mordecai Menahem Kaplan was a Lithuanian-born American rabbi, writer, Jewish educator, professor, theologian, philosopher, activist, and religious leader who founded the Reconstructionist branch of Judaism along with his son-in-law Ira Eisenstein. He has been described as a "towering figure" in the recent history of Judaism for his influential work in adapting it to modern society, contending that Judaism should be a unifying and creative force by stressing the cultural and historical character of the religion as well as theological doctrine.
Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal Judaism or Progressive Judaism, is a major Jewish denomination that emphasizes the evolving nature of Judaism, the superiority of its ethical aspects to its ceremonial ones, and belief in a continuous revelation which is closely intertwined with human reason and not limited to the theophany at Mount Sinai. A highly liberal strand of Judaism, it is characterized by little stress on ritual and personal observance, regarding Jewish law as non-binding and the individual Jew as autonomous, and by a great openness to external influences and progressive values.
Liberal Judaism is one of the two WUPJ-affiliated denominations in the United Kingdom founded by Claude Montefiore. It is smaller and more radical in comparison with the other one, the Movement for Reform Judaism. It is considered ideologically closer to American Reform Judaism than it is to the British Reform movement. As of 2010 it was the fourth largest Jewish religious group in Britain, with 8.7% of synagogue-member households.
Humanistic Judaism is a Jewish movement that offers a nontheistic alternative to contemporary branches of Judaism. It defines Judaism as the cultural and historical experience of the Jewish people rather than a religion, and encourages Jews who are humanistic and secular to celebrate their identity by participating in relevant holidays and rites of passage with inspirational ceremonies that go beyond traditional literature while still drawing upon it.
Louis Jacobs was a leading writer, Jewish theologian, and rabbi of the New London Synagogue in the United Kingdom. He was also the focus in the early 1960s of what became known as the "Jacobs Affair" in the British Jewish community.
Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks was an English Orthodox rabbi, philosopher, theologian, and author. Sacks served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. As the spiritual head of the United Synagogue, the largest synagogue body in the United Kingdom, he was the Chief Rabbi of those Orthodox synagogues but was not recognized as the religious authority for the Haredi Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations or for the progressive movements such as Masorti, Reform, and Liberal Judaism. As Chief Rabbi, he formally carried the title of Av Beit Din (head) of the London Beth Din. At the time of his death, he was the Emeritus Chief Rabbi.
Reform Judaism, formally the Movement for Reform Judaism (MRJ) and known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain until 2005, is one of the two World Union for Progressive Judaism–affiliated denominations in the United Kingdom. Reform is relatively traditional in comparison with its smaller counterpart, Liberal Judaism, though it does not regard Jewish law as binding. As of 2010, it was the second-largest Jewish religious group in the United Kingdom, with 19.4% of synagogue-member households. On 17 April 2023, Reform Judaism and Liberal Judaism announced their intention to merge as one single unified progressive Jewish movement. The new movement, which may be called Progressive Judaism, will represent about 30% of British Jewry who are affiliated to synagogues.
Leo Baeck College is a privately funded rabbinical seminary and centre for the training of teachers in Jewish education. Based now at the Sternberg Centre, East End Road, Finchley, in the London Borough of Barnet, it was founded by Werner van der Zyl in 1956 and is sponsored by The Movement for Reform Judaism, Liberal Judaism and the United Jewish Israel Appeal. It is named after the inspirational 20th-century German Liberal rabbi Leo Baeck.
Jacqueline Hazel "Jackie" Tabick is a British Reform rabbi. She became Britain's first female rabbi in 1975. She retired in 2023 as convenor of the Movement for Reform Judaism's Beit Din, the first woman in the role, and until its closure in 2022 was also Rabbi of West Central Liberal Synagogue in Bloomsbury, central London.
Anthony Michael "Tony" Bayfield is a Reform rabbi and former President of the Movement for Reform Judaism, the second largest organisation of synagogues in Britain.
Jonathan David Magonet is a British rabbi theologian, Vice-President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and a biblical scholar. He is highly active in Christian-Jewish dialogue, and in dialogue between Jews and Muslims. He was the long-time Principal, now retired, of London's Leo Baeck College, the first Liberal Jewish seminary of all of Europe since World War II. He resides in London with his wife Dorothea.
Laura Naomi Janner-Klausner is a British rabbi and an inclusion and development coach who served as the inaugural Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism from 2011 until 2020. Janner-Klausner grew up in London before studying theology at the University of Cambridge and moving to Israel in 1985, living in Jerusalem for 15 years. She returned to Britain in 1999 and was ordained at Leo Baeck College, serving as rabbi at Alyth Synagogue until 2011. She has been serving as Rabbi at Bromley Reform Synagogue in south-east London since April 2022.
The Wimbledon Synagogue, a member of the Movement for Reform Judaism, is a synagogue in the London Borough of Wandsworth at Queensmere Road, Wimbledon Park, on the boundary with the London Borough of Merton. Its Rabbi is Adrian Schell and its Chair is Ruth Bragman.
Maidenhead Synagogue is a Reform synagogue based in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. It serves Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and surrounding districts west of London in the Thames Valley area.
Sybil Ann Sheridan is a writer and British Reform rabbi. She was chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis UK at the Movement for Reform Judaism from 2013 to 2015 and was Rabbi at Wimbledon and District Synagogue in south west London. As of 2020 she is part-time rabbi at Newcastle Reform Synagogue.
Sylvia Rothschild is a British Reform rabbi. Together with Rabbi Sybil Sheridan, she was Rabbi of Wimbledon and District Synagogue in south west London, from 2003 to 2014, in the first ever rabbinic job share in England. She was Rabbi of Bromley Reform Synagogue from 1987 to 2002, and is currently the Rabbi at Lev Chadash in Milan.
Danny Rich is a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Barnet. He was, until 2020, the Senior Rabbi and Chief Executive of Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom.
Barbara Marcy Borts is an American-born Movement for Reform Judaism rabbi. She was one of the first women in Europe to be ordained as a rabbi and the first woman to have her own pulpit in a UK Reform Judaism synagogue.
The South African Union for Progressive Judaism (SAUPJ) is an affiliate of the World Union for Progressive Judaism and supports 11 progressive congregations. Rabbi Moses Cyrus Weiler, a founder of Reform Judaism in the country, led the country's first Reform synagogue, Temple Israel in Hillbrow, Johannesburg. Weiler is credited with growing the movement, to represent 15-17% of South African Jewry and establishing 25 congregations in the country. A 2020 joint study by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research and the University of Cape Town showed that 12% of Jews identified as Progressive and that in relative terms the progressive strands are increasing after falling to 7% in 1998 and 2005 studies. In Johannesburg, the community accounts for 7% of the city's Jewry, rising to 18% in Cape Town and 25% in Durban.
