Obituary: Rabbi Isaac Bernstein

Isaac Bernstein, rabbi: born Dublin 12 November 1939; Minister, Finchley Synagogue 1981-94; married 1966 Ruth Gilbert (three sons, two daughters); died London 29 August 1994.

'HE MADE the Torah come alive'. He was 'the finest orator in Orthodox Jewry in Britain'. Rabbi Isaac Bernstein, Minister of the Finchley Synagogue, in north London, spoke of the written and oral laws in Judaism with a fervour which kept great congregations spellbound. However, he was also accused of being one of the most controversial and even divisive spiritual leaders in Anglo-Jewry.

Small and wiry with a beard and pugnacious jaw, Bernstein was at his most prophetic and most passionate when he spoke on the holiness of the Land of Israel and particularly of Jerusalem. Not for him giving up an inch of the holy land of ancient Eretz Israel for peace. The Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, and foreign minister, Shimon Peres, were not among his heroes.

Every year when the right-wing British Herut-Likud Party held their celebration commemorating the unification of Jerusalem (in 1967) at the Finchley Synagogue, Bernstein was the designated speaker. His oratorical gifts were put to their best uses on these occasions and his listeners, already in tune with his views, were profoundly moved by his cascade of thundering words and quotations from the Torah and the sages.

Perhaps Bernstein's Dublin birth had something to do with his oratory as well as his temperament, which earned him the nickname of 'Blazes' Bernstein. His supporters fiercely defended him from his detractors who claimed that he was too arrogant, too aware of his own learning, even too fond of money. One of his most bitter disputes with the wardens of the synagogue concerned his claim that they had failed to honour a financial promise, a dispute which went to the United Synagogue Beth Din (court of law).

Probably like many other independent-minded rabbis in the United Synagogue - the main middle-of-the-road Orthodox Anglo-Jewish religious organisation, at the head of which is the Chief Rabbi - Bernstein resented the restrictions placed on him by the system of wardens and the head office. He would have been at his most magisterial in a huge pre- war East European congregation where his oratory, his outstanding gifts as an expositor of the Torah, the Talmud and the sages, would have been enthusiastically appreciated. Even in London, his study circles - significantly not at his own synagogue - attracted hundreds of devoted participants.

Bernstein's first ministerial post was at the Terenure Hebrew Congregation in Dublin from 1966 to 1970. He made such an impact that he was invited to become the Minister at the prestigious Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue. In 1977 was invited to become the rabbi of the Jewish Center in New York. Though he achieved much and his learning and oratory were admired, his tenure, perhaps because of his confrontational character, was not totally successful, and he returned to London.

His ministry at Finchley, where he first came in 1981, was bedevilled by problems. In the past few years there has been a dramatic drop in membership (parts of the synagogue have been roped off so as not to display the emptiness of the huge hall); and the congregants even split in two with the formation of an alternative minyan or service, held in the synagogue premises. Bernstein at first opposed the idea but then seemed to be supporting it, to the annoyance of the wardens.

It was a misfortune for Bernstein that he served Finchley at a time when the synagogue, like many others in Britain, suffered from the economic recession and finance became such a significant factor. His friends believe that he wore himself out physically and mentally trying to maintain the strength and vitality of his congregation.

Isaac Bernstein's fervent supporters, a substantial percentage of the congregation, saw him as a devoted and learned spiritual leader whose task was made impossible by his burden of duties. His detractors, while admitting his gifts as an orator, scholar and educationist, felt that he lacked one essential gift needed by a modern, commmunal rabbi - an ability to mix socially and easily with all his congregants, even with bores and troublemakers.