Rabbi Tony Bayfield | |
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Born | Anthony Michael Bayfield 1946 Ilford, Essex (now in Greater London), UK |
Nationality | British |
Education | Royal Liberty Grammar School, Romford |
Alma mater | Magdalene College, Cambridge and Leo Baeck College, London |
Occupation(s) | Reform rabbi President of the Movement for Reform Judaism 2011–16 |
Spouse | Linda Rose (died 2003)[1] Jacqueline Fisher (m. 2021) |
Children | Three children, including Rabbi Miriam Berger[1][2] |
Anthony Michael "Tony" Bayfield[3][4] CBE is a Reform rabbi and former President of the Movement for Reform Judaism,[5] the second largest organisation of synagogues in Britain.
Bayfield was born in 1946[4] in Ilford, Essex (now in Greater London), the elder son of Sheila (née Mann) and Ron Bayfield, a head teacher.
He was educated at the Royal Liberty Grammar School in Romford and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He studied law and had a doctoral place at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology and then moved to the Leo Baeck College to train as a rabbi. He received rabbinic ordination (semichah) in 1972[2] from rabbis John Rayner, Hugo Gryn and Louis Jacobs.
After ten years as a congregational rabbi at North West Surrey Synagogue, Bayfield became director of the Sternberg Centre for Judaism in Finchley in 1985.[2] He was head of the Movement for Reform Judaism from 1994 (when the organisation was known as Reform Synagogues of Great Britain) until 2011.[5] From 2011 to 2016 he was President of the organisation.[5][6]
Bayfield was awarded a CBE in the 2011 New Year Honours List for services to Reform Judaism.
London's National Portrait Gallery holds a photographic portrait of him by Don McCullin.[4]
Tony Bayfield married Linda Rose, a teacher and Jewish educator in 1969; she died in 2003. In 2011, he met Jacqueline Fisher, whom he married in a small ceremony in June 2021.
Bayfield has three children[1] and six grandchildren. His younger daughter, Miriam Berger, received semichah in July 2006 and is a respected rabbi in her own right.[7]
Bayfield is a member of Finchley Reform Synagogue (FRS).
Bayfield is a specialist in modern Jewish thought and contemporary Reform Judaism. He also specialises in Jewish-Christian and Jewish-Muslim dialogue and has published quite widely in this area. Bayfield has also written about Christian–Jewish reconciliation.[8]