Julia Neuberger

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific_prefix = Rabbi The Right Honourable

| name = The Baroness Neuberger

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|size=100%}}

| image = Official portrait of Baroness Neuberger crop 2, 2023.jpg

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| caption = Official portrait, 2023

| order =

|office = Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal

|term_start = 15 June 2004
Life Peerage

|term_end =

| birth_name = Julia Babette Sarah Schwab

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=y|1950|2|27}}

| birth_place = London, England

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| party = None (crossbencher)

| otherparty = Liberal Democrats (1988–2011)
Social Democratic Party (Before 1988)

| spouse = {{marriage|Anthony Neuberger
|1973}}

| children = 2

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| alma_mater = Newnham College, Cambridge
Leo Baeck College

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| module = {{Listen| embed=yes |filename = Baroness Julia Neuberger voice.ogg |title =Neuberger's voice |type = speech |description = recorded 2012, as part of an audio description of the West London Synagogue for VocalEyes }}

}}

Julia Babette Sarah Neuberger, Baroness Neuberger, {{post-nominals|country=GBR|DBE|size=100%}} ({{née|Schwab}}; born 27 February 1950) is a British rabbi and politician. She was the second woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the UK and the first to lead a synagogue.

Neuberger was made a life peer in 2004. In the House of Lords she took the Liberal Democrat whip until 2011 when she became a crossbencher upon becoming the full-time senior rabbi of the West London Synagogue, from which she retired in 2020. She became the chair of University College London Hospitals (UCLH) in 2019.

Early life

Neuberger was born Julia Babette Sarah Schwab in the Hampstead area of London on 27 February 1950, the daughter of art critic Liesel ("Alice") and civil servant Walter Schwab.{{Cite web|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/neuberger-julia-babette-sarah-1950|title=Neuberger, Julia (Babette Sarah) 1950- | Encyclopedia.com|website=www.encyclopedia.com}} Her mother was a German-Jewish refugee who had fled the Nazis, arriving in England at the age of 22 in 1937, while her father was born in England to German-Jewish immigrants who had settled there before the First World War. The Schwab Trust, which supports and educates young refugees and asylum seekers, was later set up in her parents' name.{{cite web|url=http://www.schwabwestheimertrust.org.uk/|title=The Schwab and Westheimer Trusts homepage|access-date=29 October 2014|archive-date=30 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141030001715/http://www.schwabwestheimertrust.org.uk/|url-status=dead}}

She attended South Hampstead High School and Newnham College, Cambridge, where she first studied Assyriology. After she was refused entry to Turkey because she was British, and then to Iraq because she was Jewish, she had to change her subject and instead studied her second language of Hebrew full-time. Her lecturer at the University of Cambridge, Nicholas de Lange, suggested she should become a rabbi.{{Cite archive|collection=Personenarchiv Ruth Weiss|institution=Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB)|item=Interview with Rabbi Julia Neuberger, the first female rabbi in Great Britain who had her own synagogue|item-url=http://baslerafrikabibliographien-archiv.faust-web.de/nav.FAU?sid=2FE9BEDD10&dm=1&erg=H&npos=1|item-id=TPA.43 165|first=Ruth|last=Weiss|type=audio recording|date=January 9, 1987}} She obtained her rabbinic diploma at Leo Baeck College. She was the second woman to be ordained as a rabbi in the UK,{{cite web |title=Julia Neuberger |url=https://jwa.org/rabbis/narrators/neuberger-julia/|website=Jewish Women's Archive}} the first being Jackie Tabick in 1975.

Career

=Religious roles=

Neuberger taught at her alma mater, Leo Baeck College, from 1977 to 1997. She was rabbi of the South London Liberal Synagogue from 1977 to 1989 and was the first female rabbi to lead a synagogue in the United Kingdom.{{cite web |url=http://www.southlondon.org/about/synagoguehistory.html |title=History of South London Liberal Synagogue |publisher=South London Liberal Synagogue |date= |accessdate=31 January 2025}} She was president of West Central Liberal Synagogue. On 1 February 2011, the West London Synagogue (a Movement for Reform Judaism synagogue) announced that she had been appointed as senior rabbi of the synagogue.{{cite web |url=http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/press-releases/west-london-synagogue-appoints-rabbi-julia-neuberger-dbe-as-senior-rabbi.html |title=West London Synagogue Appoints Rabbi Julia Neuberger DBE as Senior Rabbi | Press Releases- the Movement for Reform Judaism |website=news.reformjudaism.org.uk |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304050726/http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/press-releases/west-london-synagogue-appoints-rabbi-julia-neuberger-dbe-as-senior-rabbi.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead}} She retired from her West London Synagogue role in March 2020. She regularly appeared on the Pause for Thought section on BBC Radio 2.{{cite news|first=Katie |last=Sampson |date=1 October 1997|title=I work for: Julia Neuberger |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/i-work-for-julia-neuberger-1233213.html|publisher=www.independent.co.uk|access-date=11 July 2014}}

=Public sector activity=

Neuberger was chair of Camden and Islington Community Health Services NHS Trust from 1992 to 1997, and chief executive of the King's Fund from 1997 to 2004. She was also chancellor of the University of Ulster from 1994 to 2000.{{Cite web|title=Curtain Rises On New Chancellor|url=https://www.ulster.ac.uk/news/2010/june/curtain-rises-on-new-chancellor|date = 8 June 2010|access-date=20 March 2021|website=Ulster University}} Who's Who lists a large number of voluntary and philanthropic roles she has undertaken. She became the chair of University College London Hospitals (UCLH) in 2019.{{Cite web |url=http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/aboutus/whoweare/bod/Pages/Directorprofiles.aspx#JuliaNeuberger |title=Meet the directors |website=UCLH |access-date=7 February 2020 |archive-date=22 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200222074417/http://www.uclh.nhs.uk/aboutus/whoweare/bod/Pages/Directorprofiles.aspx#JuliaNeuberger |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.wls.org.uk/content/view/117/150/|title=Rabbi Julia Neuberger|publisher=West London Synagogue|access-date=3 June 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928024717/http://www.wls.org.uk/content/view/117/150/|archive-date=28 September 2011}}

Her book, The Moral State We're In, a study of morality and public policy in modern Britain ({{ISBN|0-00-718167-1}}), was published in 2005. The title is an allusion to Will Hutton's 1997 book, The State We're In.

=Political and parliamentary roles=

Neuberger was the Social Democratic Party candidate for Tooting in the 1983 general election, coming third with 8,317 votes (18.1%). She was appointed a DBE in the 2004 New Year Honours for "services to the NHS and other Public Bodies". In June 2004, she was created a life peer as Baroness Neuberger, of Primrose Hill in the London Borough of Camden. She served as a Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson from 2004 to 2007. On 29 June 2007, Neuberger was appointed by the incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown as the government's champion of volunteering.[http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12225.asp Appointment as "Volunteering Tsar", on 10 Downing Street website 29 June 2007.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701194808/http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page12225.asp |date= 1 July 2007 }}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/mar/10/voluntarysector.socialcare|title=Report of Neuberger's forthcoming speech on Volunteering, in The Guardian, 10 March 2008.|work=The Guardian|date=10 March 2008|access-date=29 October 2014}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/third_sector/assets/neuberger.pdf|archive-url=http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20081229164218/http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/cabinetoffice/third_sector/assets/neuberger.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=2008-12-29|title=Report on Volunteering, March 2008 (PDF)}} She resigned the Liberal Democrat whip in September 2011{{cite web |title=career |url=https://members.parliament.uk/member/3690/career |access-date=3 February 2025}} upon becoming senior rabbi of the West London Synagogue.

Controversy

In 1997, Neuberger criticised education in Northern Ireland as "sectarian" at the opening of Loughview Integrated Primary School.{{cite web|url=http://cain.ulster.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch97.htm|title=CAIN: Chronology of the Conflict 1997|first=Dr Martin|last=Melaugh|website=cain.ulster.ac.uk}} The Irish News claimed she had criticised Catholic schools as sectarian, leading to criticism from the Director of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools.[http://www.irishnews.com/pageacc.asp?sid=217635&tser1=ser&par=ben "Catholic schools are sectarian says chancellor"]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}, Anna-Marie McFaul, Irish News, 17 April 2007[http://www.irishnews.com/pageacc.asp?tser1=ser&par=ben&sid=218329 "UU 'washes hands' of chancellor"]{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}, Anna-Marie McFaul, Irish News, 19 April 2007 However, she said that the report from the Irish News had given a misleading impression and that she had been quoted out of context: "In fact, I think in what I actually said at the opening I didn't mention Catholic schools. I think I actually mentioned Protestant, Muslim and Jewish but then I was interviewed afterwards and I certainly said to the reporter that what I said applied just as much to Catholic schools as to Protestant or Jewish or Muslim or whatever."{{cite news|author= Moriarty, Gerry|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/1997/0426/97042600043.html|title=Rabbi says report was misleading|work = Irish Times|date = 26 April 1997|access-date = 13 November 2019}}[http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/97ire/The_IE_Professional__120b_9-23-97 UU Chancellor defends comments on single denomination schools] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070903111333/http://www.blythe.org/nytransfer-subs/97ire/The_IE_Professional__120b_9-23-97 |date= 3 September 2007 }}, The IE Professional #120b, 23 September 1997

Charity work

In January 2013, Neuberger was appointed chair of an Independent Review of the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient. The impartiality of the appointment was questioned by some of the bereaved families, due to her previous endorsement of the pathway, which was written by John Ellershaw, medical director of the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool, in a 2003 BMJ article,{{cite journal|title=Care of the dying patient: the last hours or days of life| pmc=1124925 | pmid=12511460 | volume=326| year=2003| journal=BMJ| pages=30–4 | last1 = Ellershaw | first1 = J | last2 = Ward | first2 = C | issue=7379 | doi=10.1136/bmj.326.7379.30}} and her widely publicised support of the Marie Curie Institute. The results of the review were published in July 2013;[https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/review-of-liverpool-care-pathway-for-dying-patients Independent report: Review of Liverpool Care Pathway for dying patients] – Department of Health, 15 July 2013. accepting the review's recommendations, the government advised that NHS hospitals should phase out the use of the LCP.

Neuberger was elected vice-president of Attend, a charity that supports and expands the roles volunteers play in creating healthy communities, in 2006{{cite web|url=http://www.attend.org.uk/about-us/people-we-honour-0/attend-vips|title=Attend VIPs – Attend|website=www.attend.org.uk}} and held the position until she retired in 2011.

Neuberger was appointed to the board of Irish health insurers Vhi Healthcare for a five-year period from 2005 by Mary Harney, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children.{{cite web|url=https://www.vhi.ie/about/press-release/2005/2|title=VHI Press Releases|website=www.vhi.ie}}

Neuberger is a vice president of the Jewish Leadership Council.{{cite web|url=https://www.thejlc.org/vice_presidents|title=Vice Presidents|access-date=2 September 2019|work=Jewish Leadership Council|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324170757/https://www.thejlc.org/vice_presidents|url-status=dead}}

Personal life

Neuberger married Professor Anthony Neuberger on 17 September 1973.{{Cite web|url=http://www.wbs.ac.uk/faculty/members/anthony/neuberger|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081003122810/http://www.wbs.ac.uk/faculty/members/anthony/neuberger|url-status=dead|title=Anthony Neuberger profile from Warwick Business School|archivedate=3 October 2008}} They have a son named Matthew and a daughter named Harriet. Her brother-in-law is David Neuberger, Baron Neuberger of Abbotsbury.

In the wake of the Brexit vote in 2016, Neuberger stated that she would apply for a German passport, for which she is eligible through her parents.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/baroness-neuberger-applies-for-german-passport/|title=Baroness Neuberger applies for German passport|first=Stephen|last=Oryszczuk|website=www.jewishnews.co.uk|date=16 November 2016 }} She said, "My decision has nothing at all to do with anti-Semitism, but with my origins, my admiration for how today's Germany has dealt with its past, and my sense of being European as well as British."{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/15/rabbi-german-passport-nazi-brexit-europe|title=I'm a rabbi, and I'm applying for a German passport. Here's why – Julia Neuberger|first=Julia|last=Neuberger|newspaper=The Guardian |date=15 November 2016|via=www.theguardian.com}}

Publications

The Story of Judaism (for children), 1986, 2nd edition 1988.
Days of Decision (Edited four in series), 1987.
Caring for Dying Patients of Different Faiths, 1987, 3rd edition 2004 (edited, with John A. White).
A Necessary End, 1991.
Whatever's Happening to Women?, 1991.
Ethics and Healthcare: the role of Research Ethics Committees in the UK, 1992.
The Things That Matter (anthology of women's spiritual poetry, Edited by JN), 1993.
On Being Jewish, 1995.
Dying Well: a guide to enabling a better death, 1999, 2nd edition 2004.
Hidden Assets: values and decision-making in the NHS today, (edition with Bill New), 2002.
The Moral State We're In, 2005.
Report on Volunteering, 2008.
Antisemitism: What it is; What it isn't and why it matters, 2019.

References

External links

[http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/baroness-neuberger/3690 Baroness Neuberger] UK Parliament profile
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/belief/scripts/neuberger.shtml 2004 Interview] by Joan Bakewell for Belief (BBC Radio 3)
[http://www.pmlive.com/find_an_article/allarticles/categories/pr_and_med_ed/2010/november/features/video_interview_with_baroness_julia_neuberger Video interview with Baroness Neuberger] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715094745/http://www.pmlive.com/find_an_article/allarticles/categories/pr_and_med_ed/2010/november/features/video_interview_with_baroness_julia_neuberger |date=15 July 2011 }} on PMLiVE.com

Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century English politicians

Category:20th-century English rabbis

Category:20th-century English women politicians

Category:21st-century English politicians

Category:21st-century English rabbis

Category:21st-century English women politicians

Category:Alumni of Leo Baeck College

Category:Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge

Category:British Ashkenazi Jews

Category:British Liberal rabbis