Professor Geoffrey Alderman - News

Alex Strom writes an opinion column for the Jewish Tribune [JT], an Anglo-Yiddish newspaper owned by the Agudist movement and which circulates in the orthodox Jewish communities of the UK. In its issue of 24 August 2006 the JT carried a piece by Strom highly critical of a motion passed at the AGM of the large and prestigious Adass Yisroel Synagogue of Hendon. This motion called on the Synagogue to sever its ties with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations [UOHC] should the Union not openly disassociate itself from Neturei Karta [NK], an allegedly orthodox extreme anti-Zionist group whose leaders travelled earlier this year to meet and make friends with the Jew-hating and Holocaust denying government of Iran, which is of course the patron of Hamas and Hizbollah. But Strom did not mention that in recent years the UOHC has made donations totalling over £58,000 to NK. The story of these donations was first broken by the Jewish Chronicle earlier this year. But the JT has never re...

Next month Barnet council-taxpayers will be invited to go to the polls to elect their local council. The size and impact of the council tax will be the major issue at these elections, and the political parties have been hard at work reassuring us that council-tax rises are being kept as low as possible. Since the last local elections four years ago, the council tax in Barnet has risen by some 32.5 per cent - an average rise over over 8 per cent each year. These tax hikes are way beyond the annual rate of inflation, which is now less than two per cent per annum. The Conservatives, who have been in power throughout this period, argue that the increases are due to extra demands - precepts as they are technically known - made by the London Assembly and various other London-wide public services, such as the Metropolitan Police. In regard to these precepts the Tories argue that they have had no discretion - they must pass on the increases, collect the revenue, and send it to the precepting...

Geoffrey Alderman issues this statement in a purely personal capacity. "Last year I accepted an invitation from the Southern Assocoiation of Colleges & Schools (SACS), based in Georgia, USA, to make a presentation to its annual meeting in Atlanta in December 2005. The presentation involved, inter alia, a critique of the SACS' university and college accreditation methodology. In January 2006 I was pleased to receive from SACS details of the very positive feedback on that presentation. I was invited to propose a subject for a presentation at the forthcoming SACS annual meeting, which will take place in Orlando, Florida, next December. Meanwhile, the "Chronicle of Higher Education ran a long article (13 January 2006) on American InterContinental University (AIU). This article triggered a lively debate on the Chronicle's "Forum" website, in which my colleague Dr Grace Telesco (South Florida Campus) and I (London Campus) took part, in defence of the univers...

A PERSONAL STATEMENT MADE MORE IN SORROW THAN IN ANGER Earlier this month the Open University held a meeting with representatives of all its accredited institutions to tell them what it intends to do to deal with the "Limited Confidence" outcome of the audit of its collaborative provision undertaken by the Quality Assurance Agency last May. The result of this audit, and the manner in which the OU responds to it, are likely to have profound implications for the way in which all British institutions of higher education manage their collaborative arrangements in the future. The "Limited Confidence" verdict cannot have come as any surprise to those familiar with OU procedures, as implemented through its validation arm, Open University Validation Services - OUVS. When in 1992 the polytechnics were enabled to become universities, and were freed thereby from supervision by the Council for National Academic Awards, the CNAA itself was shut down. Realizing that this closur...

I have this week written to the President of the Federation of Synagogues in London asking him and his fellow Honorary Officers to fill the vacant office of "Rav Rashi" - Chief Rabbi - of the Federation. In my letter I reminded the President (Mr Alan Findlay) that the last holder of this office was the late Dayan Michael Fisher. The need for this office remains as strong now as at the time of its inception - if not stronger. As the Federation grows, and as its influence is felt more keenly in circles beyond the immediate confines of Anglo-Jewry, it needs a public focus, embodied in a rabbi of great sagacity with a strong national profile. "The office has remained vacant for far too long [I have said]. It should be filled without further delay."

The following statement was issued on Friday 05 August 2005 by Professor Geoffrey Alderman: "A month ago the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, publicly declared that he was unable to accept the validity of Mrs Helen Sagal's conversion effected by the official rabbinical authorities in Israel some fifteen years ago. Prior to his delivery of this judgment I has applied, on Mrs Sagal's behalf, to the London Beth Din [over which Sir Jonathan presides] for the delivery to us of copies of every document in its possession relating to her case. This application was made on 20 June 2005 under the provisions of the Data Protection Act, 1998. Accordingly, that Act gave the Clerk to the Beth Din, Mr David Frei, 40 days to comply with this application. On Saturday 30 July, some 41 days after the application, I received a package of materials from Mr Frei. These include notes handwritten by various Dayanim [Judges] relating to the case, and give a unique insight into the motives that l...

Statement by Professor Geoffrey Alderman The following statement was issued on Wednesday 06 July 2005 by Professor Geoffrey Alderman following a meeting that took place between Mr and Mrs Sagal and the Chief Rabbi to further explore the refusal of the Office of the Chief Rabbi to recognise Mrs Sagal's conversion effected in Israel some fifteen years ago. "On Tuesday evening, 05 July 2005 I accompanied Mrs Helen Sgal and her husband, Israeli-born Mr Raoul Sagal, to a meeting with the Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks. The Chief Rabbi was accompanied by one of his Dayanim (Judges), Rabbi Ivan Binstock, and the Executive Director of his Office, Mrs Syma Weinberg. The meeting, which had been requested by the Chief Rabbi, took place in Mrs Weinberg's private residence, and lasted approximately 90 minutes. At the meeting Sir Jonathan made a statement intended to justify the view that he and his Beth Din {Ecclesiastical Court] had taken, that the validity of Mrs Sagal's conve...