Sybil Sheridan

{{Infobox Jewish leader

|honorific-prefix = Rabbi

|name = Sybil Sheridan

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|synagogueposition = Rabbi

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|organisation = Rabbi at Newcastle Reform Synagogue; Rabbi at West London Synagogue (2014–20); Chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis, Movement for Reform Judaism (UK) (2013–15); Rabbi at Wimbledon and District Synagogue (2003–14)

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|semicha = 1981

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|birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|27 September 1953}}

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|nationality = British

|denomination= Reform Judaism (UK)

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|spouse = Rabbi Jonathan Romain

|children = Four

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Sybil Ann Sheridan (born 27 September 1953) is a writer and British Reform rabbi. She was chair of the Assembly of Reform Rabbis UK{{cite web | url=http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/rabbi-sybil-sheridan/ | title=Rabbi Sybil Sheridan | publisher=Movement for Reform Judaism | accessdate=13 September 2017 | archive-date=13 August 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813150345/http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/rabbi-sybil-sheridan/ | url-status=live }} at the Movement for Reform Judaism{{cite news | url=http://www.thejc.com/community/community-life/109247/moving-chairs-reform-changes-leading-posts | title=Moving chairs as Reform changes leading posts | work=The Jewish Chronicle | date=8 July 2013 | accessdate=3 March 2014 | author=Simon Rocker | archive-date=20 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020112950/http://www.thejc.com/community/community-life/109247/moving-chairs-reform-changes-leading-posts | url-status=live }} from 2013 to 2015{{cite press release | url=http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/press-releases/rabbi-paul-freedman-elected-as-new-assembly-of-rabbis-chair.html | title=Rabbi Paul Freedman elected as new Assembly of Rabbis Chair | publisher=Movement for Reform Judaism | date=12 June 2015 | access-date=25 June 2015 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150626120206/http://news.reformjudaism.org.uk/press-releases/rabbi-paul-freedman-elected-as-new-assembly-of-rabbis-chair.html | archive-date=26 June 2015 | df=dmy-all }} and was Rabbi at Wimbledon and District Synagogue in south west London. As of 2020 she is part-time rabbi at Newcastle Reform Synagogue.

Sybil Sheridan has edited two books and contributed to several academic publications. She is a major contributor to interfaith dialogue, both nationally and internationally, and has a particular interest in Jewish-Muslim dialogue and especially between women. She co-chaired the Home Office International Conference for Women in Judaism and Islam.{{cite web| url=http://www.an-nisa.org/downloads/D66_JM_IDOLS_17Jan10.pdf| title=Idols| publisher=An-Nisa Society and Leo Baeck College| date=17 January 2010| accessdate=2 April 2013}}{{Dead link|date=June 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=no }}

She has strong links to Israel and to the educational festival Limmud. She has lectured at Leo Baeck College{{cite book | title= Themes and Issues in Judaism|series= World Religions: Themes and Issues|editor= Seth Daniel Kunin | publisher= New York: Cassell | page = vii|year= 2000}} and the Muslim College, London. She is on the International Editorial Advisory Board of Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues published by Indiana University Press.{{cite web| url= http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/pages.php?pID=88&CDpath=4| title= Nashim: Editorial Details| publisher= Indiana University Press| accessdate= 5 August 2017| archive-date= 4 September 2017| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170904170808/http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/pages.php?pID=88&CDpath=4| url-status= live}} For eight years she was Jewish chaplain at the University of Roehampton.

Early years

A child of German-Jewish refugees,{{Cite web |url=http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/elul-thoughts-rabbi-sybil-sheridan/ |title=Elul Thoughts from Rabbi Sybil Sheridan |author=Sybil Sheridan |date=22 September 2016 |publisher=Movement for Reform Judaism |access-date=13 September 2017 |archive-date=13 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913190606/http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/elul-thoughts-rabbi-sybil-sheridan/ |url-status=live }} she grew up in Bolton, Lancashire, a member of Manchester Reform Synagogue.{{cite news|title=A batmitzvah when you're older can feel like coming home|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/18/a-batmitzvah-when-youre-older-can-feel-like-coming-home|author=Sophie Hardach|work=The Guardian|date=18 July 2015|access-date=25 September 2017|archive-date=29 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170929183904/https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jul/18/a-batmitzvah-when-youre-older-can-feel-like-coming-home|url-status=live}} She read theology and religious studies at Cambridge University, being one of the first two Jews to do so (the other being Walter Rothschild). She then studied at Leo Baeck College and at the Pardes Institute in Jerusalem, and was ordained as a rabbi in 1981,{{cite news | url= http://www.wimshul.org/node/178 | title= Economic change is about justice, not charity, say faith leaders | work= Independent Catholic News | access-date= 1 April 2013 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130128041710/http://www.wimshul.org/node/178 | archive-date= 28 January 2013 | df= dmy-all }} one of the first women in Europe in the role.{{cite news | url= http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_74.html | title= I've always had to prove myself – Rabbi Barbara | work= Jewish Telegraph | year= 2010 | accessdate= 29 September 2017 | archive-date= 4 March 2016 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160304190512/http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_74.html | url-status= live }}

Career

After four years at Ealing Liberal Synagogue, she took extended maternity leave, during which time she wrote a book of children's stories, lectured at Leo Baeck College, and worked with the Swindon Jewish Community. In 1994 Rabbi Sheridan became Rabbi of the Thames Valley Jewish Community (now known as the Reading Liberal Jewish Community){{cite web | url=http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/community/re/index.htm | title=Reading Liberal Jewish Community | publisher=JCR-UK | work=Congregation Data | date=7 August 2019 | accessdate=26 July 2020 | archive-date=14 May 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210514013441/https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/Community/re/index.htm | url-status=live }} and remained there until her appointment as Rabbi of Wimbledon and District Synagogue. She job shared with Rabbi Sylvia Rothschild{{cite news | url=http://www.thejc.com/judaism/judaism-features/what-future-jews-left-ethiopia | title=What future for the Jews left in Ethiopia? | author=Sybil Sheridan | work=The Jewish Chronicle | date=10 June 2009 | accessdate=23 November 2012 | archive-date=20 October 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020192517/http://www.thejc.com/judaism/judaism-features/what-future-jews-left-ethiopia | url-status=live }} in that post from 2003 until early 2014. In 2014 she became Rabbi at West London Synagogue.{{cite news | url=http://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-jewish-chronicle/20141024/282003260686867/TextView | title=Sheridan goes back to pulpit | work=The Jewish Chronicle | date=24 October 2014 | accessdate=10 April 2016 | author=Naomi Firsht | archive-date=20 February 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240220013252/https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-jewish-chronicle/20141024/282003260686867/TextView | url-status=live }}

In 2011 she produced, with Cantor Zoe Jacobs of Finchley Reform Synagogue, what is thought to be the first major new collection of synagogue music published in the UK for nearly a century. Shirei Ha-t'fillah (Songs of Prayer), a compilation of sheet music and explanatory articles, was published by the Movement for Reform Judaism.{{cite news | url= http://jc-thn-ws2.jc.cust.nseuk.net/community/community-life/51707/songbook-music-ears-reform | title= ESongbook is music to the ears of Reform | work= The Jewish Chronicle | author= Simon Rocker | date= 14 July 2011 | access-date= 2 April 2013 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://archive.today/20130413203550/http://jc-thn-ws2.jc.cust.nseuk.net/community/community-life/51707/songbook-music-ears-reform | archive-date= 13 April 2013 | df= dmy-all }}

As of 2020 she is part-time rabbi at Newcastle Reform Synagogue.

Social justice

Sybil Sheridan has made several visits to Ethiopia to find out about and support the Jews in Gondar.{{cite web| url= http://www.anglo-ethiopian.org/publications/articles.php?type=L&reference=publications/articles/2011winter/jews.php| title= Are there still Jews in Ethiopia?| publisher= The Anglo-Ethiopian Society| author= Jean Broadbent| date= Winter 2011| accessdate= 2 April 2013| archive-date= 14 June 2013| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130614033451/http://anglo-ethiopian.org/publications/articles.php?type=L&reference=publications/articles/2011winter/jews.php| url-status= live}}{{cite web| url= http://www.linkethiopia.org/blog/2012/07/05/abyot-fray-is-no-longer-water-free/| title= Abyot Fray is no longer water free!| publisher= Link Ethiopia| date= 5 July 2012| accessdate= 2 April 2013| archive-date= 12 January 2014| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140112114026/http://www.linkethiopia.org/blog/2012/07/05/abyot-fray-is-no-longer-water-free/| url-status= live}} She was inspired by her visit to set up a new charity, Meketa (Amharic for protection or support),{{cite web | url=http://www.meketa.org.uk/ | title=Home page | publisher=Meketa – supporting Jews in Ethiopia | accessdate=20 March 2016 | archive-date=30 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160330122931/http://www.meketa.org.uk/ | url-status=live }} after seeing at first hand the poverty and lack of resources available.{{cite news|url=http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/News/Areas/Maidenhead/Race-against-time-to-save-the-lost-Jews-of-Ethiopia-05092012.htm|title=Race against time to save the lost Jews of Ethiopia|author=James Preston|work=Maidenhead Advertiser|date=7 September 2012|accessdate=2 April 2013|archive-date=9 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120909021515/http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/News/Areas/Maidenhead/Race-against-time-to-save-the-lost-Jews-of-Ethiopia-05092012.htm|url-status=live}}

In February 2013 she was one of a group of Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh leaders who met at Parliament to urge MPs to support a radical overhaul of the financial system including debt cancellation for the most indebted countries, more progressive taxation and an end to harmful lending.

Personal life

She is married to Jonathan Romain, Rabbi of Maidenhead Synagogue, and they have four adult sons.{{Cite web |url=http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/maidenhead-synagogue-times/ |title=Maidenhead Synagogue in The Times |publisher=Movement for Reform Judaism |date=11 August 2017 |access-date=13 September 2017 |archive-date=13 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170913142016/http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/maidenhead-synagogue-times/ |url-status=live }}

Publications

=Books=

Sybil Sheridan: "Abraham from a Jewish Perspective" in Norman Solomon, Richard Harries, Timothy Winter (eds): Abraham's Children: Jews, Christians and Muslims in Conversation, pp. 9–17, London and New York: T & T Clark, 2005. {{ISBN|0-567-08171-0}} (hardback); {{ISBN|0-567-08161-3}} (paperback)
Stephen Bigger: Creating the Old Testament: The Emergence of the Hebrew Bible, Basil Blackwell, 1989. {{ISBN|978-0-631-16249-0}}. Sheridan contributed two chapters
Sybil Sheridan (ed.): Hear our voice: women in the British rabbinate, Studies in Comparative Religion series. Paperback, 1st North American edition. Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 1998. {{ISBN|1-57003-088-X}}
Sybil Sheridan (ed.): Hear our voice: women rabbis tell their stories. Paperback, 203 pages. London: SCM Press, 1994. {{ISBN|0-334-02583-4}}
Sylvia Rothschild and Sybil Sheridan (eds.): Taking Up the Timbrel: The Challenge of Creating Ritual for Jewish Women Today. London: SCM Press, 2000
Sybil Sheridan: "Human Nature and Destiny" in Seth Daniel Kunin (ed): Themes and Issues in Judaism, World Religions: Themes and Issues, pp. 166–191. New York: Cassell, 2000. {{ISBN|0-304-33757-9}} (hardback); {{ISBN|0-304-33758-7}} (paperback)

==For young people==

Sybil Sheridan, illustrated by Olivia Rayner: Jewish World, Stories from the Religious World series. Paperback, 48 pages. Silver Burdett, 1987. {{ISBN|978-0-382-09312-8}}. The stories include recent historical experience in the Holocaust{{cite book| title= The Primary English Encyclopaedia | author= Margaret Malett|page=24|year=2008|edition=Third|publisher= Abingdon, Oxon and New York: Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-45103-1}}

=Journal articles and lectures=

Sybil Sheridan: "Are We Prisoners of Our History?" in European Judaism, volume 28, no. 2, Autumn 1995, pp. 68–72. Berghahn Books Inc. {{ISSN|0014-3006}}
Sybil Sheridan: "History of Women in the Rabbinate: A Communal Case of Amnesia". Lecture delivered at BET DEBORA – European Conference of Women Rabbis, Cantors, Scholars and all Spiritually Interested Jewish Women and Men, Berlin, May 1999{{cite web| url=http://www.hagalil.com/bet-debora/jewish-women/history.htm| title="History of Women in the Rabbinate: A Communal Case of Amnesia". Lecture delivered at BET DEBORA – European Conference of Women Rabbis, Cantors, Scholars and all Spiritually Interested Jewish Women and Men, Berlin| date=May 1999| author=Sybil Sheridan| publisher=hagalil.com| accessdate=2 April 2013| archive-date=9 January 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130109230842/http://www.hagalil.com/bet-debora/jewish-women/history.htm| url-status=live}}
Sybil Sheridan: "My first day at Leo Baeck College" in European Judaism, 39, no.1, Spring 2006, pp. 69–70. Berghahn Books Inc. {{ISSN|0014-3006}}
Sybil Sheridan: "Aliza Lavie Tefillat Nashim: Jewish Women's Prayers Throughout The Ages (Book review)", Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies and Gender Issues, no.15, Spring 2008, p. 212. Indiana University Press. {{ISSN|0793-8934}}

=Newspaper articles=

Sybil Sheridan: [http://www.thejc.com/judaism/judaism-features/what-future-jews-left-ethiopia/ "What future for the Jews left in Ethiopia?"], The Jewish Chronicle, 10 June 2009
Sybil Sheridan: [http://www.thejc.com/judaism/judaism-features/115078/we-must-not-abandon-jews-left-ethiopia/ "We must not abandon the Jews left in Ethiopia"], The Jewish Chronicle, 26 January 2014

=Podcasts=

Stefanie Sinclair: Regina Jonas: the first female rabbi, Open University, 2013. Includes an interview with Sybil Sheridan{{cite web | url=https://itunes.apple.com/gb/itunes-u/regina-jonas-first-female/id609629052 | title=Regina Jonas: the first female rabbi | author=Stefanie Sinclair | publisher=The Open University | date=27 February 2013 | accessdate=16 February 2015 | archive-date=3 March 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150303175456/https://itunes.apple.com/gb/itunes-u/regina-jonas-first-female/id609629052 | url-status=live }}

References

External links

[http://sybilsheridan.tumblr.com/post/26908843375/ Official blog]
[http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/rabbi-sybil-sheridan/ Movement for Reform Judaism page on Rabbi Sybil Sheridan]
Einat Ramon: "Taking Up the Timbrel: The Challenge of Creating Ritual for Jewish Women Today (review)", Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues, no. 7, Spring 2004, pp. 236–239
[http://jewishjournal.com/rosnersdomain/rosners_domain-mobile/153282/rosners-torah-talk-parashat-shemot-with-rabbi-sybil-sheridan/ Shmuel Rosner (9 January 2015) "Rosner's Torah-Talk: Parashat Shemot with Rabbi Sybil Sheridan"], Jewish Journal. Retrieved 13 August 2017.

Category:1953 births

Category:Living people

Category:20th-century English rabbis

Category:21st-century English rabbis

Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge

Category:Alumni of Leo Baeck College

Category:British Reform rabbis

Category:Jewish English writers

Category:English people of German-Jewish descent

Category:Clergy from Bolton

Category:Reform women rabbis