The United Synagogue

Alei Tzion Appoints Leading Rabbi

PRESS RELEASE

London,
3rd September 2007

ALEI TZION APPOINTS LEADING RABBI

Alei Tzion, in partnership with the United Synagogue and the London School of Jewish Studies (LSJS), are delighted to announce that Rabbi Binyamin Tabory has been appointed as the new Rabbi of Alei Tzion.

Rabbi Tabory will join the congregation, located in LSJS, in an exciting year for the community who are in the process of becoming a constituent member of the United Synagogue. As well as serving the Alei Tzion community, Rabbi Tabory will be the Rabbinic Scholar in Residence LSJS and the Rosh Kollel of the new Torah MiTzion kollel at Immanuel College.

Rabbi Tabory is the father of Rav Aviad Tabory, the founding Rabbi of the Alei Tzion community. Rabbi Tabory, who attained rabbinical ordination in 1970, has been teaching at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel (known as “Gush”) since 1979 and he currently serves as a senior Rav of the Yeshiva. Previous posts included being the founding head of the first-ever Zionist yeshiva in North-America and for the past twenty years, he has also been a senior lecturer in Jewish Studies at the Midreshet Moriah Seminary in Jerusalem.

Rabbi Saul Zneimer, Chief Executive of the United Synagogue, said: “Rabbi Tabory is a very well-respected Rabbi with an outstanding reputation in educating at the highest levels. The Jewish community is extremely fortunate that Alei Tzion has attracted such a wonderful Rabbi to the UK and we look forward to this fledgling community joining the United Synagogue family in due course.”

David Tapnack, Chairman of Alei Tzion, commented: “We are delighted to have secured a globally-recognised, leading Rabbi who will bring unique leadership and learning to Alei Tzion and, indeed, to London as a whole. He will help us to grow our Kehilla into a friendly, passionate community, proud of our connection and commitment to Israel, and with a genuine commitment to learning.”

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, commented: “The arrival of Rav Binyamin Tabory is a rare and special privilege, not only for the Alei Zion minyan but for British Jewry as a whole. He is an outstanding scholar, rabbi and rosh yeshivah, and will bring us the very best of the work currently being done in Israeli yeshivot. My advice to everyone is, go and hear him if you can. Rarely do we have such scholars in our midst.”

Dr. Raphael Zarum, Chief Executive of LSJS said: “We are delighted to welcome Rabbi Tabory as the new LSJS Rabbinic Scholar in Residence. He is an eloquent and inspiring teacher and will be a leading light of the growing LSJS teaching faculty that attracts hundreds of students from across London.”

Rav Tabory said: “I am looking forward to the challenge of working with such a vibrant community as Alei Tzion and helping to enhance the community’s spiritual development. I am also pleased to be teaching at LSJS and the Torah MiTzion Kollel at Immanuel College which will enable me to further my contribution to the London Jewish community.”


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EDITORS’ NOTES: -

Rabbi Tabory – Biography
Born in Baltimore in 1943, Rabbi Binyamin Tabory received a Master’s degree in Jewish philosophy from Yeshiva University’s Bernard Revel Graduate School of Judaic Studies and rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1970.

He taught for three years in Los Angeles and in 1971 he and his family emigrated to Israel.

In 1975 he was invited to Toronto to serve as the Rosh Yeshiva of both the Yeshiva Or Chaim High School for boys, and the Ulpanat Orot High School for girls.

Since 1979 Rabbi Tabory has been a Senior Lecturer in Talmudic Studies and Jewish philosophy at Yeshivat Har Etzion (Gush), a Jewish theological academy in Israel. He also gives weekly audio lectures on a variety of Jewish topics which are downloaded and listened to by Jewish communities around the globe.

For twenty years he has also been a Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies at the Midreshet Moriah Seminary in Jerusalem.

In 1994 he was invited to serve as the founding Rosh Kollel of the Torah MiTzion Kollel in Cleveland Ohio, the first Zionist Kollel in North America. He led and taught a team of Jewish educators who worked in the schools and synagogues of the Cleveland Jewish community.

Rabbi Tabory spent a year in 2004-05 as a Visiting Lecturer in the Judaic Studies Department at Stern College, the undergraduate college of arts and sciences for women of Yeshiva University in New York City.

Early in 2007 Rabbi Tabory was invited to come to London to fulfil a multifaceted role as the Rabbi of the Alei Tzion Community, Rosh Kollel of the Torah MiTzion Kollel London housed in Immanuel College High School and the Senior Lecturer in Rabbinic Studies at the London School of Jewish Studies.

Rabbi Tabory is married with two children and lives in Gush Etzion in Israel.


For further information, please contact:

Nikki Ginsberg
The PR Office
Work: 020 7383 3623
Email: nginsberg@theproffice.com