John Rayner, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

John Rayner

British rabbi and theologian

Date of Birth: 30-May-1924

Place of Birth: Berlin

Date of Death: 19-Sep-2005

Profession: writer, rabbi, author, university teacher

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Gemini


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About John Rayner

  • Rabbi John Desmond Rayner (30 May 1924 – 19 September 2005) was born in Berlin as Hans Sigismund Rahmer.
  • He left Berlin in 1939 on one of the last Kindertransports.
  • There were about 10,000 children on the train.
  • Both his parents, Ferdinand Rahmer and Charlotte Landshut, died in the Holocaust. Between 1943 and 1947 Rayner served in the British Army.
  • In October 1947 he took up an open scholarship in modern languages that he had previously won at Emmanuel College, Cambridge five years earlier.
  • In his second year he switched to Moral Science which comprised philosophy, logic, ethics and psychology and graduated in 1950 with First Class Honours.
  • In his third year Rayner specialised in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Semitic Epigraphy.
  • In his sixth year Rayner began working as a research student on a thesis about Maimonides' conception of Revelation. Rayner was ordained in the Liberal Jewish ministry on 21 June 1953 and served the South London Liberal Synagogue, in Streatham until 1957.
  • He then worked at St John's Wood Liberal Synagogue until in 1963 he left for Cincinnati, Ohio, in the United States.
  • Rayner had been invited to the Hebrew Union College to take up a graduate fellowship.
  • He returned to the UK to serve as Minister at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in June 1965. He wrote books on diverse topics including halakha, marriage, ethics, Zionism, theology and Jewish-Christian relations.
  • He also gave a large number of sermons.
  • He was voted one of the best preachers in Britain by Harpers and Queen magazine in 1976.
  • During the late 1960s and 1970s Rayner made several appearances on national television and radio. He was an active participant in inter-faith work as co-chairman of the London Society of Jews and Christians.
  • As a result of this work in 1993 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. His thought emphasises the importance of ethics and the need for a more halakhic approach to Progressive Judaism. On 19 September 2005 he died, at home, after a long illness.

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