The Passing of Rabbi Dr. Abraham Levy OBE

It is with great sadness that we record the passing of Rabbi Abraham Levy.  For as long as can be remembered, Rabbi Levy served as the Montefiore Endowment’s leading trustee and Hon. Principal of its Judith Lady Montefiore College. It is due to his vision that,  over the past twenty years,  the Montefiore Endowment has been transformed from an struggling minor charity into a uniquely vital and creative educational force in the larger Jewish Community and beyond. Inspired by his example, it remains for us to carry on the work he started with renewed vigour.    May his memory long be with us as an inspiration and blessing.

Believing that deeds speak louder than words, the Chairman of the Montefiore Endowment records what he regards as one of the Rabbi’s most significant achievements, which he spoke of with much pride, especially during his last year with us.

  It must have been about thirty years ago that serious thought was given about what could be done with the Montefiore Endowment at Ramsgate, then an obscure minor charity, in debt and struggling to maintain its decaying synagogue and the integrity of its collections.  With his admiration for Sir Moses Montefiore and his specialised knowledge of antique documents and artefacts, Rabbi Levy decided that something must be done.

   Now, some thirty years later, its properties in Ramsgate and its collections are in in good order and the Endowment is also able to support other charities and scholars with similar aims.

But more important, the Montefiore Endowment is now firmly established as a uniquely vital, creative educational force both in this country and in the English-speaking world – from London to Israel,  America and Australia, and in places between. It is a unique and vital educational force, a worthy testimony to Rabbi Levy’s remarkable vision and perseverance. It is now engaged in teaching rabbinical students, senior rabbis, lay men and women and gifted school leavers those Torah-based values close to the late Rabbi Levy’s heart; and it will shortly be starting a ground-breaking course of intensive higher Torah learning for women.

   There is nothing quite like it in this country or abroad. Asked why our courses should be so  attractive in Israel and the United States, each with their own ample rabbinical resources, we are told again and again that it is because our programmes are unique.

   All this was by no means easy to achieve and there were many struggles along the way. But what was perhaps the most hurtful was the hostility displayed by part of the orthodox rabbinical establishment of this country; and even now Rabbi Levy’s creative  innovations in Torah learning are still resented in parts of London, rather than being hailed as one of the Community’s prime assets.

We are living at a time in which long-accepted values based on the Bible, are being overtaken by selfish new modes of thinking and behaviour. Religion itself, including our own, is beset with factionalism and strife: it is under attack, not only by aggressive secularism but by an increasing wave of sheer indifference. For many, Rabbi Levy represented the acceptable face of orthodox Judaism. He accepted all who wished to improve and respected different shades of belief and non-belief, providing there was goodwill. It was his kindly, inclusive attitude, his infectious personality and enthusiasm – coupled with unshakable faith in his God and his country – that enabled him to make friends in unlikely places, friends who eventually helped in the tasks he undertook.

   Where else but under Rabbi Levy’s Montefiore umbrella can we see rabbis from the extreme right and left wings of our orthodox community studying Torah together at the same table;  or witness distinguished speakers with strikingly different views amicably debate contentious halachic issues at public meetings?   

   It is worth stressing this one of Rabbi Levy’s many achievements, because it is less well-known than others and all too easily overlooked. What a formidable achievement it really was. An achievement not granted to many of us in our lifetimes. We can only hope that the mainstream Jewish Community will not content itself with easy words of praise but will react to the passing of this remarkable rabbi with the recognition and appreciation that his contribution to the survival of Judaism’s endangered middle way deserves; and that positive steps will follow along his path he blazed.

And finally, let us pray that the memory of our dear rabbi and friend will long remain with us as a blessing.

Source: montefioreendowment.org.uk