Jacqueline Tabick

Rabbi Tabick was born in Dublin in 1948 to a traditional Jewish family. They moved to London when she was eight years old. She went to University College, London, and read history. Her special topic was Monastic Life in the Medieval period. She became involved in interfaith work through her synagogue and rabbi, Dow Marmur. Her first foray into this area was when she went on a trip to Hamburg with a youth group led by Rabbi Marmur when she was 18. This event was one of the first arranged for Jewish and Christian youth groups to meet and dialogue after the Holocaust. In 1975, she was the first woman to be ordained a rabbi in the UK at Leo Baeck College. She married a fellow student, Larry, and together they have three children and five grandchildren. One son is a Masorti rabbi, the other is studying Talmud for a Ph.D. Rabbi Tabick worked at West London Synagogue for British Jews with Rabbi Hugo Gryn for over 25 years, then went to North West Surrey Reform Synagogue for a further 15 years. Leaving there, she took on convening the Beit Din (religious court) for the Reform Movement here and in Europe and was the rabbi of West Central Liberal Synagogue for 10 years. She remained interested in interfaith work throughout her career. She sat on the Interfaith Network for the UK for many years, was a patron of the Jewish Council for Refugees, and is presently President of the World Congress of Faiths.