Sexual Abused Victim a Mother of 3 Committed Suicide on Yom Tov

Before and After: Deb Tambor was raised as a member of the Skver Hasidim in upstate New York. She is pictured as she appeared before (left) and after leaving the group.

A New Square divorcée 33 year-old mother of 3 has committed suicide over on Yom Tov.

Her Name is Deborah Tambor, she was allegedly molested as a child by her uncle and when she told her Rabbi about the sexual abuse he accused her of lying and was exceedingly mean, her parents did not know of the molesting until after she broke down years later when she had already several kids and the marital problems started, then she left the New Square Community.

Bloggers are rallying around her, blaming her family for her death at 33. Apparently, Deb was involved in a bitter child custody battle with her ex husband. Bloggers say that her entire family and support network turned on her because she was no longer frum. Her children were poisoned against her and her own father testified against her at a child custody hearing.

Here was a woman who lost her children with the help of a judicial system so corrupted by the bloc votes.

Square leadership treated her horribly, allegedly heaping money and support on her ex-husband and demonizing Deb, all in order to make sure she did not get custody of or normal visitation with her children.

Square won that fight, but the demonizing of Deb did not stop. Instead, Square Rabbis and teachers worked to alienate her children from their mother. Square and her ex-husband knew about the sexual abuse and about Deb's depression and previous suicide attempt. What Square and Deb's ex-husband did to her was very likely to make her depression worse.

Eventually the pain of all of this became too great and Deb committed suicide. Many of her  friends went to Rockland County for the funeral, which was delayed over and over and over again by Square – delayed until the those ex-haredi friends finally left in the very early hours of this morning, many hours after they arrived to mourn her.

She allegedly tried to kill herself once before, while she was still married and in New Square, the Rabbis and Deb's ex-husband bear significant responsibility for what happened.

Depressive illness is one of the common problems that come from sexual abuse.

Just recently, Yoeli Spielman, a young man who was shunned by his community, also reportedly committed suicide right after Yom Kippur.

Ben Hirsch Prosecuting Paedophiles

Law of Return – or long arm of law?

From: www.ynetnews.com

British haredi man charged with child sexual abuse attempts to get into Israel using phony passport, seeks citizenship under law allowing all Jews to immigrate to Jewish state

Does the Law of Return trump international law? This question will have to be ruled on by the High Court of Justice, following an attempt by an ultra-Orthodox Jew from England, who was charged with sexual abuse of children, to find asylum in Israel.

The man has been detained already for over a half year. In a rare instance, the Interior Ministry decided not to grant him standing under the Law of Return, due to the heavy suspicions against him in the UK. 

Now the issue comes before the High Court, which is expected to rule soon, in an unusual case – is it possible to grant standing under the Law of Return to a Jew accused of paedophilia who has fled his home country in order to escape prosecution?

An indictment was filed against T., 48, for indecent assault on a minor. After charges were announced, T. fled to Israel together with his family. But when he landed, he was arrested for using a fake passport. 

The Immigration Authority refused to grant him standing under the Law of Return due to the charges against him in the UK, and even sought to deport him back to his homeland.

In response, T. filed an appeal with the High Court via Attorney Amit Hadad from the law firm of Attorney Jacob Weinroth.

Lawyers have requested to back the position of the interior minister, and not grant T. Israeli citizenship.

“The danger to public safety is seen not only from the crimes, but also from his fleeing from England,” said the State Prosecutor’s Office representative, Attorney Reuven Adleman

Convicted paedophile denies his wife a get

From: http://www.thejc.com 

An Orthodox Jewish woman says she has been refused a get from her husband, a convicted pedophile who sexually assaulted her daughters.

The man was sentenced last month for abusing the girls, his step-daughters, from the ages of nine and 12.

The woman, who cannot be name for legal reasons, said she had filed for a get— a religious divorce — but the deadline had passed without a response from her husband.

She said: “He tells people he still loves me. He wants his name cleared, that’s the word we hear on the grapevine. But of course he’s dirtying his name even more by being controlling.”

The man’s lack of respect for women and lack of remorse over the sexual abuse was noted by the judge during the case.

“If he showed remorse, he would have given the get already. I’m a possession to him,” his wife said.

Her daughters remained badly affected by the abuse, and she feared they would suffer further if the get was not granted.

“My younger girl won’t let me hug her. She has become very introverted. My elder daughter has become a bully. It’s the anger and the pain. She was forced to do things she didn't want to do,” the woman said.

She has successfully applied for a court order, preventing her husband from coming near her home or workplace.

The woman said she feels let down by her community in north-west London. “The rabbis are shutting their doors,” she said. “Even with a guilty verdict and a sentence, they cannot accept that a religious person could do such a thing. It’s a sick world.

“I would like to see a bit more support. I've had no phone calls. I’d just like acknowledgement. I've become the criminal, but I haven’t done anything wrong. I feel as if my closest friends have stabbed me in the back.”

The husband declined to comment.

N.J. man charged with forcibly touching woman in wheelchair in Monsey

MONSEY — A New Jersey man was charged Friday with forcibly touching a wheelchair-bound woman at a Maple Avenue nursing home, police said.

Abraham Mashinsky, 23, of Lakewood, N.J., is believed to have entered the Northern Metropolitan Nursing Home on Thursday night. Investigators said that once inside, he engaged a 31-year-old handicapped resident in conversation and later subjected her to forcible touching.

Mashinsky, who had been staying at his father’s Waverly Place home during the Jewish holidays, fled the building after being confronted by staff, said Sgt. Charles Edwards.

Police searched the grounds of the home at 225 Maple Ave., but where unable to locate Mashinsky on Thursday night, Edwards said.

While investigating the case Friday, a Ramapo police officer recognized Mashinsky as the suspect in the nursing home incident and placed him under arrest.

Mashinsky was arraigned in Ramapo Town Court, where he was charged with forcible touching, a misdemeanor, Edwards said. Mashinsky was released without bail. He is to return to court at 10 a.m. Oct. 3.

Edwards said an order of protection was issued preventing Mashinsky from contacting his alleged victim.

NY man Roy Naim, Arrested by the FBI on child porn charges and denied bail

From: http://edition.cnn.com/ 

New York (CNN) -- An activist for immigration reform was arrested and arraigned on child pornography charges in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday.

Roy Naim, 29, pleaded not guilty to a count of receiving child pornography, and was denied bail by Judge Joan M. Azrack.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Saritha Komatireddy argued Naim was a risk to the community as his alleged crimes involved children, and he sometimes worked with a youth advocacy group and volunteered at a camp for children. She added he was a flight risk as he has no real job and isn't a citizen of the country.

Naim's attorney, Richard A Finkel, countered that his client was a respected member of his community, and told the court how Naim, who was mentioned in a 2012 Time magazine article on immigration reform, volunteered for many charities and had become a relatively well-known activist on immigration.

Finkel continued to explain that Naim did not work because he spent most of his time "helping others" and studying with rabbis.

His family works hard, Finkel said, but they have little money and own no property.

Judge Azrack did not say she would deny Naim bail outright, but said without money or property to offer as collateral, Naim would be kept in custody for now.

Finkel told reporters as he left the courthouse that he had just been put on the case and "I don't know much about it ... They're just charges and we will contest the charges, and that's all I can say."

Prosecutor Komatireddy declined comment on the case.

Naim moved with his family from Israel when he was 3 years old, but has not attained U.S. citizenship.

Naim was mentioned in a cover story for Time magazine in June 2012 by journalist and filmmaker, Jose Antonio Vargas, who publicly revealed his own status as an undocumented immigrant and gaining support among so-called DREAMers -- advocates for a path to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants.

In a story on his life that he wrote for the website Empathizethis.com, Naim said, "I read this article about Jose Antonio Vargas, who outed himself as an undocumented person. I remember reading that article, and it gave me a lot of hope. I started connecting with Jose, and I ended up (in) Time magazine with him."

Naim continued in the online biography, "If you ask me what I want to do, I would say that I want to serve people. Volunteer work is what I live for."

In June, the New York Daily News ran an article about Naim's work with a children's advocacy group on a game for children based on the immigrant experience.

According to the federal indictment of Naim, investigators in Louisiana arrested a suspected producer of child pornography who allegedly had enticed children to engage in sexually explicit conduct on the internet via videoconferencing. The suspect allegedly recorded the acts, and sent the videos to people over the web and through e-mail.

Following an electronic trail, investigators were led to a computer at Naim's home according to the indictment.

Federal agents executed a search warrant, the indictment says, and told Naim he was not under arrest, but asked him if there was any information he wanted to share voluntarily.

According to the indictment, Naim led the agents to his computer and told them he had been viewing and downloading videos of child pornography for several years, and his a laptop contained videos of child pornography. He was then arrested.

If convicted, Naim faces five to 20 years in prison, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

California State Officials Shut Down Jewish Chicken-Slaughtering Ritual

Two operations in the Pico-Robertson area were ordered Friday by the Calif. Department of Food and Agriculture to shut down a traditional Jewish ritual involving slaughtering chickens.

Bait Aaron, a Sephardic Orthodox outreach group, and Ohel Moshe, a synagogue, were performing kaparot, which is practiced by a small group of Orthodox Jews on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.

Kaparot is an ancient ritual in which a person swings a live chicken overhead three times and recites a prayer. The bird is then slaughtered and given to the poor.

"It's not meant to be to hurt these animals in any way, not anyone can slaughter these animals," Ohel Moshe congregant Omid Dayan said. "It has to be a certified person there. The whole purpose is to sacrifice the chicken in the least harmful way as possible."

Rabbi Jonathan Klein of Faith Action For Animals, an animal rights group, shot video outside a synagogue Thursday that outraged his membership.

"This is a ritual that has no obligation for any Jew to do," Klein said. "I think Kaparot as a concept is wonderful, but when it involves using chickens, and it causes mass slaughter then we have a real problem, and it's a problem for the whole community."

Ohel Moshe congregants believe the ritual is misunderstood.

"They're not just doing it and throwing it in the garbage can. They're using this food; they're giving it to poor people and they actually eat it," Fred Cohen said.

But Klein's group captured video of dozens of trash bags being loaded into trucks.

"We have visuals with the bodies of chickens in bags being thrown into a truck," he added.

State officials said they are willing to work with the two locations cited for not having a proper license for killing the animals.

Tragedy in Bnei Brak: 4 year old drowned in mikveh

From: www.bholworld.com

4 year old Sarah Spivak a"h and her brother went into the mikveh on Yom Kippur • She stumbled into the water and drowned to death • only after the intervention of rabbis, her body was released and funeral left towards Yarkon Cemetery

Tragedy in the midst of the day: today (Shabbos) afternoon, 4 year old Sarah Spivak a"h – drowned in the mikveh on Neufeld Street in Bnei Brak. 

The girl is the daughter of Rabbi Samuel Spivak of Bnei Brak. 

Paramedics and volunteers of Hatzalah performed advanced resuscitation on the child but to no avail. The girl was taken by Mobile Intensive Care Unit to Schneider Hospital in Petach Tikva, where she was declared dead. 

Yechiel Stiglitz senior medic in Hatzalah Dan, who was the first at the scene said: "When we arrived we saw a little girl 4 years old with no pulse and not breathing. We started advanced and prolonged resuscitation. Intensive Care Units staff transferred her to the Schneider hospital whilst continuing CPR." 

Nissim Hest a medic volunteer at Hatzalah, said: "The girl apparently went to the mikvah which remained open from erev Yom Kippur with her brother and slid into the water. 

Her brother ran outside and alerted a passerby who rescued the girl from the water; the man did not know how to handle the case himself and called the rescue forces. For a long time resuscitation was carried out at the scene and she was taken to hospital in critical condition where she was declared dead." 

"On the morning of Yom Kippur, the girl got up and kissed her father," Yisrael Gronich a volunteer at Hatzalah Dan told B'Chadrei Charedim, "then she asked the mother to dress her in white for Yom Kippur. The girl went out with her brother aged 5 and 6, and somehow they went to the mikvah, it is not clear why it was not locked. At this time we are arranging the funeral issues and family support for these difficult moments. 

The funeral was scheduled to leave tonight at 11:30 but a non-invasive test was carried out on the body to determine the cause of death and deny other reasons. Examination revealed a finding that does not fit in case of drowning and thus delayed the release of the body. 

After efforts from Rabbi Hanania Tz'olk of Ezer MeZion and Rabbi Yaakov Roger Rabbis Committee Chairman Zaka at Abu Kabir Institute, the body was released tonight and the funeral left after midnight from the Yarkon funeral home. 

Tel Aviv police reported that they are investigating the circumstances of death, and examined the possibility of negligence by mikvah operators.

http://www.103.fm/programs/Media.aspx?ZrqvnVq=FLJFLJ&c41t4nzVQ=EM

http://www.103.fm/programs/Media.aspx?ZrqvnVq=FLJGKH&c41t4nzVQ=EM

Rabbi Moshe Gutnick apologises for child sex abuse in Jewish community

From: www.abc.net.au 



AUDIO: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-11/senior-rabbi-apologises-for-culture-of-cover-up/4951536

Australia's most senior orthodox rabbi, Moshe Gutnick, has formally apologised for child sexual abuse within the Jewish community.

In a written apology on the eve of Yom Kippur, he said the issue has been handled inappropriately with a culture of covering up abuse.

Rabbi Gutnick asked victims of abuse for forgiveness and urged them to come forward to ensure police can prosecute the perpetrators.

"We need to empower ourselves and victims to help to bring this scourge to an end," he said.

Talking to reporters, the rabbi addressed what he called a "cultural cover-up" with those inside the church refusing to contact the proper authorities in the belief sexual assault was a church issue, not a criminal one.

"I'm not talking about any specific incident or case. I'm talking about there was this idea of keeping the problem in house," he said.

"For something that was part of much of our thought processes and that again was completely wrong and we have to now be very open about what takes place."

He also acknowledged how a case he handled in 1987 has remained with him over the decades since.

"I received an anonymous phone call from a very young person telling me that they had been sexually abused," he said.

"At the time I reported it to the people involved but I didn't take it very seriously."

Rabbi Gutnick said he now regrets not taking action at the the time to catch and punish the perpetrator.

"If I would have done more, if I would have followed it up, if the perpetrator would have then been identified and caught, then there are many victims after that that would have been saved," he said.

In addition to the apology, the letter also addressed the behaviour of those inside the church, calling upon the majority of rabbi's to adopt a culture of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Tzedek, a group advocating for Jewish victims of child sexual abuse, has welcomed the letter, describing it as a ground breaking milestone for the Jewish community.

The founder and chief of Tzedek, Manny Weks, says an apology is an important step in the healing process for victims.

"I don't necessarily think that it is all of a sudden going to change overnight," he said.

"But it certainly does send out a very strong message that the peak body of the rabbinate and the orthodox community in Australia has taken an unequivocal position on this matter.

"It leaves no ambiguity on how they need to respond to this issue."

Head of Jerusalem 'sadistic cult' convicted

From: privateinvesigations.blogspot.co.uk/

The Jerusalem District Court on Tuesday convicted the head of a "sadistic cult" and his assistant, who were arrested two years ago.

The two were found guilty of most charges, including sex offenses, holding individuals in slavery conditions and abusing women and dozens of children, some of them the biological kids of the cult head.

  

The "family" included six women and dozens of children. The head of the cult convinced the women to join him pleasantly, but once they did – he turned their lives into a living hell, including physical, sexual and mental abuse, both against them and against their children.

Two of the women were removed from the courtroom as the verdict was being delivered after causing a commotion. "There was only love in the house," one of them said later. "It's all a lie."

A gag order has been placed on the full indictment in a bid to prevent the identification of the dozens of young children and their mothers. According to a summarized version cleared for publication, the main culprit, D., was charged with holding individuals under conditions of slavery; physically, mentally and sexually abusing minors and their mothers, false imprisonment, rape, sodomy and indecent acts, as well as serious violence offenses.

  

According to the indictment, D. saw himself as the successor of a well-known figure from his Hasidic movement and the person chosen to distribute his doctrine in the world. He got more and more women to join his cult by convincing them of his "powers."

Once these women fell into his trap, his pleasant behavior was replaced with violence, abuse and contempt – which moved on to the next generation when the children were born.

The indictment says D. headed a "family" of six women and dozens of children, some of them his biological kids, who lived in apartments in Jerusalem and Tiberias, and treated them brutally and violently, doing "whatever he wanted."

He was accused of fully controlling the women and children's lives, turning the kids into beggars and distributing his religious doctrine from dusk till dawn, using cruel measures to punish them according to his unexpected caprices, erasing their personality and distorting their thoughts.

The punitive measures, according to the State Prosecutor's Office, were carried out with unusual cruelty, using harsh violence, imprisonment, starvation, physical and mental abuse and humiliation, including serious sex and violence offenses and keeping the children away from their mothers.

D. was accused of 15 different counts, including serious sex offenses against his stepdaughters and other children. According to the State Prosecutor's Office, the brutal regime in the "family" home and his full control over the women and children stemmed from his charismatic personality and spiritual traits they attributed to him.

After the trial, the women turned to the cameras and insisted "it wasn't abuse; it was love."

"They shut our mouths. We weren't allowed to speak, the women and children were threatened," said one of the women. According to her, it was actually the police that harmed her: "I got beaten up by the police so I would testify against him. They locked us up in prison for 11 months." Other women also claimed that the police threatened them and made them give "false testimonies under threat."

Regarding D., some of the women said: "He is an amazing, righteous and real person. It doesn't make sense to people that we chose to live with him out of love, and that is why this is a false conviction."

Two men who used to visit the home were also accused of committing serious sex and violence offenses, allegedly under D.'s orders. One of the offenders, whose was also convicted Tuesday, stayed in the "family" home and took an active part in the violence and sex offenses for many years. The other man was accused of committing the offenses in a single incident.

Personal journals kept by the women and children helped police investigators base their case. The diaries pointed to the details of the shocking affair, which was revealed in August 2011 by one of the women who complained to the authorities.

A search of the detainees' homes revealed electric shockers, ropes and rods, as well as medical documents from different hospitals across the country, which point to physical injuries suffered by the children.

Bloodbath in Divrei Chaim

From: ifyoutickleus.blogspot.co.uk/

An anonymous letter apparently posted to members of the breakaway Divrei Chaim minyan(im?)

The entire board of UOHC resigned

From: ifyoutickleus.blogspot.co.uk

Last year's Calendar

This year's Calendar

Why Are Convicted Child Molesters Getting Probation?

www.rabbihorowitz.com

Stand Up and Be Heard

By: Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

Hudson Valley’s News 12 released this video Thursday evening about the slap-on-the-wrist six year probation sentence given to Herschel Taubenfeld, who pleaded guilty to 30 misdemeanor counts of forcible touching, endangering the welfare of a child and third-degree sex abuse.

This is not an isolated incident, but rather a pattern where Rockland District Attorney Thomas Zugibe is agreeing to and the judges are granting no-jail-time probation “sentences” to child molesters, among them Shmuel Dym and Moishe Turner. (Turner was recently found davening in a Wesley Hill shul until he was banished by people who read about his sex-offender status in our recent emails on the child safety matter.)

There are those who will tell you that these probation “sentences” rehabilitate the predators by frightening them into controlling their evil impulses. I beg to differ. I think they only embolden them as this sends a horrible message that they will never be punished for their heinous crimes.
If you think differently, just have a look at how Turner and Dym, who are both registered sex offenders, (see Turner and Dym in the NYS Sex Offender Registry) responded to their good fortune of avoiding long prison sentences:

• As incredible as it sounds, Turner BLAMED HIS VICTIM for the abuse according to remarks by Rockland County Supreme Court Judge William Kelly. And this happened while the eyes of the media and the criminal justice system were on him!! Can you imagine the contempt for the law Turner has now that the attention is off him??

• Shmuel Dym violated EIGHT conditions of his probationary sentenceand was returned to jail. Again, this took place while he was in the process of appealing his own guilty plea.

My dear friends, your children are not safe and will never be safe as long as these miscarriages of justice continue and as long as these monsters who ravage our innocent children are permitted to walk our streets without fear of prosecution and real jail time.

Those of us who work with and do our best to comfort the abuse victims in our community cannot reverse this trend by ourselves.

Sorry to be blunt, but if you want your kids to be able to walk the streets without being abducted and attend shul without being molested, you will need to stand up and be heard.

If you want positive change to occur, take the time to write a respectful email to the DA’s office at info@rocklandcountyda.com, to Steve Lieberman who covers the local beat for The Journal News atslieberm@lohud.com, and file a Citizen Service Request with The Ramapo Police.

Respectfully convey your wishes that those who destroy the lives of our children should be arrested, prosecuted, and sentenced to the fullest extent of the law. From the many conversations I have had with law enforcement officials locally and nationally, many or most of them are under the impression that we want to “handle these matters internally.” And we have all painfully seen how effective that has been.

Law enforcement officials are human beings just like the rest of us. They get frustrated beyond words when they arrest predators who richly deserve long prison sentences and then watch as political pressure is applied and their dedicated efforts are washed away. After this happens a few times, they just throw up their hands.

As a high-ranking police officer once told me years ago, “Rabbi, we can’t care more about your kids than you do.”

My dear friends, let’s start caring more about the kids and less about the monsters who ruin their lives.

It is time to stand up and be heard.

P.S. Parents; please speak to your children about BOTH "Stranger Danger" and overall "Child Safety/Abuse Prevention.

Here are links to 3 free 4-5 minute videos which are designed to give you the tools and language to have safety talks with your kids:
#1 youtu.be/O3i9Gdlbw1g
#2. youtu.be/zS7WBs_osNE
#3 youtu.be/lp0vjJolygQ
and you can purchase our Project YES child safety book, “Let’s Stay Safe!” online at http://www.rabbihorowitz.com/letsstaysafe/index.html or at any of the local Jewish bookstores.
You can also download our Read-Aloud Video Version of our Child Safety Book here and watch it with your children.


To sign up for Rabbi Horowitz’s weekly emails, please click here.

נצחונו הגדול של משה אריה פרידמאן כולם נכנעו כל ילדיו התקבלו ביסודי התורה ובבית יעקב היום החלו הלימודים

From: bshch.blogspot.co.uk/

אכלו דג מסריח ושילמו ביוקר ככה ולא אחרת קרה לקהילת 'מחזיקי הדת' ולחסידי בעלזא באנטוורפן, הם ניהלו מאבק אימים נגד קבלת ילדיו של משה אריה פרידמאן למוסדותיהם, הם הבטיחו כי יילכו עד הסוף ועד מסירות נפש, הם אף סיפרו כי יש להם הבטחה מהרבי שלהם כי הם ינצחו, ומעשית היום הובסו כל הקהילות החרדיות באנטוורפן, מפני שמשה אריה פרדימאן הצליח דרך בית המשפט להכניע אותם הם נאלצו להגיע עמו להסכמה והיום הגיעו ילדיו ליסודי התורה שם ילמדו הבנים, והבנות לבית יעקב כולם שייכים לקהילת מחזיקי הדת

לא אחזור כאן על ההיסטוריה אבל זאת אומר, בימינו אין זה עוד זמני העבר, וכשנלחמים מצליחים, וטעות היה מלכתחילה שלא לקבל את ילדיו, הסיפור הזה לכלך את כולם אף אחד לא יצא כאן נקי וחבל

אולי הסיפור הזה יהיה לקח לעתיד שלא משחקים עם נשמות של ילדים, גם אם יהיו טענות חזקות נגד משה אריה פרידמאן אבל הילדים לא צריכים לסבול

אני אישית שמח שהפרשה הזו הסתיימה, מפני שכל הסיבה שליוויתי את הפרשה הזו היתה רחמנות על הילדים, הם לא אשמים שנולדו במשפחה הזו

New chief rabbi vows to bar female rabbis, same-sex marriage

See: BBC - Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis is installed as UK chief rabbi
Also: BBC - Chief Rabbi designate Ephraim Mirvis: 'The challenges are enormous'

Britain's new chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who has vowed to remain traditional by barring women rabbis and same-sex marriage, was sworn in on Sunday to face the challenge of uniting the nation's polarized Jewish community.

About 1,400 guests, including Britain's heir apparent Prince Charles, attended a ceremony at a north London synagogue as Mirvis replaced the respected Jonathan Sacks after 22 years as the leading spokesman for British Jews.

"A warm welcome to new @chiefrabbi Mirvis & my thanks to Lord Sacks for special contribution he made to our whole country as #ChiefRabbi," Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted.

South African-born Mirvis, 56, becomes head of Britain's largest Jewish denomination, but his synagogue network and other mainstream Orthodox make up only half of the 260,000-strong UK Jewish community, the world's fifth and Europe's second largest.

As titular head of British Jews, Mirvis faces the same problems confronting the Church of England, such as falling congregations and the challenge of making traditional religion relevant in a modern consumer society.

He signaled the orthodox United Synagogue would retain its traditionalist stance on same-sex marriage, which is at odds with rabbis in the Liberal and Reform synagogues at the forefront of the campaign for same-sex marriage.

"We have a clear Biblical definition of marriage, which is the union of one man and one woman, and through that we value traditional family life," Mirvis said in a BBC interview ahead of Sunday's ceremony.

As for the possibility of women rabbis, he responded: "In our tradition, men have occupied that role, and that is the format for Orthodox congregations".

Mirvis is expected to tread a careful course to try to bring the various streams of British Judaism closer.

Rabbis in the liberal-leaning Reform movement have urged Mirvis to abandon the title of chief rabbi and instead call himself the chief Orthodox rabbi to more accurately reflect his position and as a gesture to growing progressive congregations.

Progressive synagogues now account for around a third of all Jewish congregations in Britain.

The rapidly growing ultra-Orthodox or Haredi communities make up much of the rest and they also do not consider the United Synagogue head as their chief rabbi.

But Mirvis, who won plaudits for being the first United Synagogue rabbi to host an address by an imam, has shown no inclination to change his title and has declined to break tradition and visit a on-Orthodox synagogue.

The Installation of Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis as Chief Rabbi