A Sussex University graduate returned to Brighton and Hove last week after eight years to begin his tenure as rabbi.
Rabbi Gabriel Kanter-Webber is replacing his “major inspiration” and community role model Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah, one of the first lesbian rabbis in Britain.
He led his first service at Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue (BHPS) on Saturday and starts as Liberal Jewish chaplain at Sussex University in September.
Rabbi Kanter-Webber said: “I think every new rabbi has a bit of impostor syndrome, because that’s inevitable, but particularly because I’m following someone who I know very well, and who was one of my major inspirations to enter the rabbinate.
“It’s a very strange feeling but, also, it feels very much like coming home.
“The children who I used to teach are now off at university themselves and there’s that real sense of cycle here, which is really powerful.
“That was 10 years ago this month that I first started working here as the head teacher working with the children and it was just really transformational.
“Actually, it was being part of the synagogue that was the most powerful part of my student experience, because it was a place where I was connected with all sorts of people, all sorts of ages, all sorts of backgrounds, and just being welcomed into a community rather than living in a student bubble.”
He got involved in BHPS as the head teacher of the Saturday school as a student, and is returning after training at Leo Baeck College in Finchley.
His five years of training for the rabbinate included academic studies and placements working with a fledgling Jewish community in York.
As a subscriber to Liberal, or Progressive Judaism, teaching is incredibly important to the new rabbi.
He said: “It’s a Judaism where I don’t have to drop my normal 21st century values in order to enter a synagogue: where women can do everything, we do same-sex marriages, we welcome everyone with whatever gender background – and that feels entirely consistent with Jewish values to me.
“This is the chance we have to make (children) realise that Judaism is something exciting and it’s not just the dusty Torah scroll written on parchment but it has values connected to modern life with things to say about refugees and green issues.”
BHPS, in Lansdowne Road, Hove, reopened to its 300 members in December 2015 after renovations to the building it has occupied since 1937 and a refurbishment.
The old stained glass from the building has been preserved and displayed inside, along with a “tree of life” memorial installation to reflect community roots in the building.
He said: “Every other synagogue will have what’s called a ‘bimah’, which is a raised platform. It might be raised just a few inches or it might be a proper stage from which the service is led, like the pulpit, so to speak.
“When this space was redesigned, the community decided that they wanted everyone to be on the same level. They didn’t want the rabbi or whoever was leading the service to be above everyone else.
“The Jewish community is increasingly becoming alive to issues around access. There was recently a commission on racial inclusivity and about how to make sure that Jews of colour are feeling included and welcome. I know that’s an area that all sorts of parts of the community need to do work on.
“Even on the physical level, this is one of the very few synagogue buildings that was designed with access in mind in a physical sense.
“In terms of the inclusion of the community, I think, having Rabbi Elli who is a figurehead for inclusion within and without the Jewish community … she’s set an incredibly important tone and example that anyone is welcome here.”
Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah, one of the first openly lesbian rabbis in Britain, was granted semichah (rabbinic ordination) alongside Rabbi Sheila Shulman in 1989.
Rabbi Kanter-Webber said: “Some of the children here, until I came along, were shocked to hear that man could be a rabbi and I think that’s wonderful. That’s really great because so often children have the opposite idea.”
The BHPS community is bouncing back from covid, using Zoom to supplement in-person services and education courses.
The new rabbi said that he hoped to engage a wide demographic of the Liberal Jewish community with a monthly pizza night for the young people post-mitzvah on a Friday night, as well as a 94th birthday coming up.
He said: “Ultimately, for me, everything comes back to the Hebrew phrase ‘b’tselem elohim’ which literally means ‘in the image of God’ – and that’s a quote from the creation story.
“Everyone has that divine spark inside them. Everyone is in the image of God and everyone needs to be treated as if they are God.”
