Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner

Department of Theology and Religion
Honorary Fellow, Edward Cadbury Centre

Contact details

I am the former Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism. I love congregations, especially working with young people. I’ve loved the blessing of having taught Jews, Christians and Palestinians both in London and Jerusalem.

Qualifications

MA Cantab (Theology and Religious Studies)
Post Graduate degree in Community Centre Management (Hebrew University, Israel)
MA in Jewish Education and Communal Service (Brandeis, USA)
BA, MA and Rabbinic Ordination (Leo Baeck College, London)

Biography

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner was born in London and moved on her own from Orthodoxy to Reform Judaism in her early teens. After her degree in Christianity, she moved to Jerusalem where she lived for 14 years. Laura worked in education in Israel, training Jews in leadership; working with Christians as the Director of the Centre for Christian Encounters and in training Israeli-Palestinian dialogue facilitators as part of the Oslo Peace Process. She was ordained in 2004 and was a congregational rabbi until she became the Senior Rabbi in 2011, a role she served in until 2020. She is a regular television and radio broadcaster including ‘Thought for the Day’.

Research

AI and Ethics; Israel-Palestine; Muslim-Jewish relations

Other activities

Co-Chair of Interfaith Global Commission into LGBT+ Lives

Publications

Neshamah Hadasha/A New Life. A Jewish Birth Ceremony Anthology (1991)
Bitesize Resilience: A Crisis Survival Diary (Kindle, 2020)