Chaim Rapoport - Biography

Rabbi Chaim Rapoport (b. Manchester, England, 1963<ref name="accessed 1/6/2007">http://www.yctorah.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=165, accessed 1/6/2007</ref>) is an author, lecturer and Judaic scholar. He is a member of the UK’s Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks’ cabinet where he holds the Jewish medical ethics portfolio.<ref name="accessed 1/6/2007"/> Rabbi Rapoport is a visiting professor at the Jewish Learning Exchange in London and Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in New York. He has written several scholarly books and articles.

Upbringing and education

Rabbi Rapoport's father served as the Rabbi of one of Manchester's largest synagogues – Higher Crumpsall Synagogue – for some 40 years. After his schooling, the young Rapoport attended the Yeshivot of Manchester, Gateshead, Torat Emet in Jerusalem and the central Lubavitch Yeshivah in New York. After receiving his Rabbinic diploma (semichah) and his marriage to Rachel Clara in 1984 he continued his studies in the States.

In 1987 Rabbi Rapoport and his wife joined the community Kollel in Melbourne, Australia, where – in addition to his post graduate studies – he officiated and lectured in several communities, including the far flung Launceston in Tasmania.

Career

In 1989, Rabbi Rapoport took up position as head of the Leeds Kollel, a position which he occupied until the end of 1994. In the years 1994 - 1997 Rabbi Rapoport served as Minister in Birmingham and the Head of the Birmingham Rabbinic Board.

In September 1997 Rabbi Rapoport was appointed as Rabbi to the Ilford Synagogue, Beehive Lane. He was later sacked from this position in February 2005, along with the synagogue’s Chazan Avrom Levin, which led to a storm of controversy about the United Synagogue withdrawing funding from its smaller Jewish communities. Rabbi Rapoport rarely speaks publicly about the issue, although it caused a great deal of resentment within Ilford's Jewish community who accused the United synagogue of, “insulting and degrading” Rabbi Rapoport, whilst “leaving Ilford’s community to die."

In 1998 Rabbi Rapoport was appointed as member of the Chief Rabbi’s Cabinet and Advisor to the Chief Rabbi on matters of Jewish Medical Ethics. In 2005 Rabbi Rapoport established Machon Mayim Chaim, to explore "unique approaches" to Jewish learning. He also lectures to the United Synagogue Rabbinate at the London School of Jewish Studies.

Controversial views

Rapoport's book The Messiah Problem: Berger, the Angel and the Scandal of Reckless Indiscrimination (Ilford 2002) is a rebuttal to Dr. David Berger’s critique of Chabad Lubavitch. Berger's book was titled The Rebbe, the Messiah, and the Scandal of Orthodox Indifference.

Rapoport's book, Judaism and Homosexuality: An Authentic Orthodox View (Vallentine Mitchell, 2004), stakes out a position on Homosexuality and Judaism designed "to mitigate the painful consequences of Orthodoxy's uncompromising rejection of homosexuality.". The volume explores the intersection between halakhah and homosexuality.

He is cautious about human cloning:

However, there was an "equally challenging responsibility" to avoid the temptation to follow paths that could "wreak havoc for mankind," continued Rapoport, a member of the UK chief rabbi's cabinet, and responsible for medical ethics. He warned of the risks of ending up with a disproportionate number of clones of a particular gender, or an imbalance in the distribution of attributes and talents. Cloned humans also could suffer physical, psychological and sociological damage, he added. Finally, Rapoport said, Jewish law had never been comfortable with fertility techniques involving "different men and women who do not themselves represent organic family nuclei."

Works

• Judaism and Homosexuality: An Authentic Orthodox View" (Vallentine Mitchell, 2004)
• The Messiah Problem: Berger, the Angel and the Scandal of Reckless Indiscrimination (Ilford 2002)
• The Afterlife of Scholarship: A Critical Review of 'The Rebbe' by Samuel Heilman and Menachem Friedman (Oporto Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-615-53897-6

• Interview on his views
• Article on heter mechirah
• Critique of the attack on Yeshivat Chovivei Torah
• Review of his book on Homosexuality and Judaism
• BBC audio on the permissibility of organ transplants
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