Honorific-Prefix: | Rabbi |
Charles Berg | |
Synagogue: | Bournemouth Reform Synagogue 1948-1952; Wimbledon and District Synagogue 1953–1974 |
Synagogueposition: | Rabbi |
Semicha: | 1952 |
Birth Name: | Karl Rauchtenberg |
Birth Date: | 1911 |
Birth Place: | Treptow, Berlin |
Death Date: | 24 November 1979 |
Buried: | Golders Green Jewish Cemetery |
Nationality: | German until 1939; British |
Denomination: | Reform Judaism |
Rabbi Charles Berg, born Karl Rauchtenberg (1911 – 24 November 1979), was the first non-Orthodox rabbi to be ordained in England. He came to the United Kingdom in 1939 as a refugee from Nazi Germany, having been interned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp following Kristallnacht.[1]
After assisting Rabbi Werner van der Zyl at Kitchener Camp, a camp for Jewish refugees in Sandwich, Kent,[2] he served in the British Army's Pioneer Corps and, at the end of the Second World War, was involved in the interrogation of Konrad Adenauer.[1]
Berg started his rabbinical training at the Hochschule für die Wissenschaft des Judentums in Berlin[3] and continued it privately. He received his semicha in 1952 after being examined by Rabbis Leo Baeck, Arthur Lowenstamm and Dr Max Katten, becoming the first non-Orthodox rabbi to be ordained in England.[1]
He served as Rabbi at Bournemouth Reform Synagogue from 1948 to 1952.[1] In 1953 Wimbledon and District Synagogue appointed him as its first rabbi.[4] When he retired in 1974, the community had grown to 750 members.
He died on 24 November 1979 and is buried at Golders Green Jewish Cemetery.[1]