Memoir of Leo Baeck College

Abstract

I entered Leo Baeck College in September 1979 as 50 percent of the Class of 1984; my co-student was William Wolff. It would be hard to conceive of two less similar people, yet we hit it off like a house on fire and remained close mates throughout our College years. I came from an academic background; my general Jewish knowledge was almost nil, but I'd already mastered Biblical Hebrew. Willie, a tabloid journalist, was steeped in Yiddishkeit but couldn't differentiate between a s h va na ' and a s h va nach. Our lecturers that first year must have been in hysterics over us. In those days, as now, entry to the College was by interview. But what an interview! It was divided into three parts: a general discussion with the full College Board, a psychological assessment and a financial review. The College was then housed in the schoolrooms of the West London Synagogue. The interview with the full Board was held in the Council Room of WLS. We were surrounded by portraits of the good and the great who had ruled over WLS for several decades. Despite the somber setting, I've rarely, if ever, attended such a nonchalant interview. Most of the time I sat bemused, listening to the rabbis on the Board debating an abstruse point of theology that had been unearthed by my innocent reply to some question or other. When Jonathan Magonet asked me why I wanted to become a rabbi, I said that I'd received a great deal from my Judaism as a child and adolescent, and I wanted to give something back to the community. Evidently, this was sufficient back then to get me into the course. My psychological assessment was with Wendy Greengross. Knowing that I'd come from several years as a lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, Wendy pointed to the pock-marked and graffiti-covered school desk between us and asked me whether I would honestly consider leaving the University, with all its wonderful facilities, for this (I recall that her voice italicised the word 'this'). I'm sure that my affirmative answer was evidence of