Laura Janner-Klausner

Life and career

Early life and education

Janner-Klausner was raised in north London and attended South Hampstead High School. As a young girl, Janner-Klausner regularly travelled to constituency surgeries at the weekends with her father, Greville Janner, a QC and then a Labour Member of Parliament. Janner-Klausner's great-uncle, Emeritus Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Sir Israel Brodie, had a profound influence on her growing up.

Initially a member of Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue, a congregation affiliated to the United Synagogue of Orthodox British Jews, Janner-Klausner has frequently cited her bat mitzvah as a pivotal moment. She was so disaffected by the experience that she left Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue the very next day. Janner-Klausner subsequently became involved in youth activities at Alyth Gardens Reform Synagogue near Golders Green, developing a passion for Reform Judaism's values of egalitarianism and social justice and expressing interest in becoming a Rabbi as young as 13. She returned to London in 1982 and became a founding member of RSY-Netzer, which is now the largest Jewish youth movement in the United Kingdom.

Janner-Klausner studied divinity at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (the alma mater of her father and brother), where she was taught by Rowan Williams, later Archbishop of Canterbury. She studied alongside Linda Woodhead, now Professor in the sociology of religion at Lancaster University. Janner-Klausner was on the Union of Jewish Students executive and ran her university's Israel Society and Progressive Jewish Society. She then began to broadcast regularly on programmes such as BBC Radio 4's Today programme (in the Thought for the Day slot) and BBC One's The Big Questions.

Whilst Rabbi at Alyth, Janner-Klausner began chairing British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights, an Israeli human rights organisation. By 2011, she had served for eight years as Rabbi at Alyth, a community with 3000 members.

Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism

In July 2011, Janner-Klausner became first Senior Rabbi to Reform Judaism, a position initially entitled "Movement Rabbi". Chair-elect of Reform Judaism, Jenny Pizer, said Janner-Klausner was "an influential broadcaster and writer, a great teacher and a popular rabbi of one of our flourishing communities". Janner-Klausner has since said of Rabbi Mirvis: "he made some very positive noises about inclusivity and working together and it was really well received. It’s not playing out in reality, unfortunately."

Bitesize Resilience: A Crisis Survival Guide

In May 2020, Janner-Klausner published her book Bitesize Resilience: A Crisis Survival Guide. The book draws upon her pastoral experience as a Rabbi, and her personal experience of dealing with the allegations made against her father, to offer day-by-day guide to building resilience. As the book was completed during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, Janner-Klausner opted to use its release to encourage donations to the Molly Rose Foundation.

On 18 June 2020, Janner-Klausner was announced as the chair of the judging panel for the 2021 Wingate Literary Prize, described as "one of the Jewish world's top literary prizes".

In 2022, it was announced that Janner-Klausner would return to the pulpit as the congregational rabbi at Bromley Reform Synagogue from April. She is a President of the Council of Christians and Jews and has worked with organisations including the Three Faiths Forum and the Interfaith Network for the UK. Having studied Christian theology at university, Janner-Klausner has worked with the Methodist Church, the Church of Scotland and the Quakers to deepen interfaith ties.

LGBT+

Janner-Klausner strongly supports same-sex marriage, which she calls "equal marriage". Referring to the legalisation of gay marriage, Janner-Klausner said "our starting point, middle point and finishing point is about equality". Janner-Klausner has been recognised as a religious leader in the area of anti-LGBT+ discrimination and has been appointed to the Ozanne Foundation's Inter-Religious Advisory Board.

Refugees

Janner-Klausner has emerged as one of the leading British religious voices on the issue of refugee rights. She was involved in bringing the issue to public prominence, writing in August 2015 that "when Jewish people look at Calais migrants, we see ourselves" and being one of the leading voices in a letter signed by over 200 Jewish representatives labelling the government's response "appalling". Janner-Klausner was especially vocal on the topic of the Calais Jungle, visiting on multiple occasions. In September 2015, a short film was made documenting Janner-Klausner visiting the Jungle alongside Imam Qari Muhammad Asim. During debate over the Dubs Amendment to the Immigration Bill to grant 3,000 unaccompanied child refugees entry to the UK, Janner-Klausner spoke extensively in its favour. She was at the forefront of a letter signed by many Rabbinic leaders calling for the Dubs Amendment to be adopted and spoke out alongside Jewish leaders from a range of denominations after the amendment was initially rejected, saying "I believe Britain has the capacity and the will to do more during this crisis". In September 2016, she addressed a crowd of 10,000 people at a Solidarity with Refugees rally in Trafalgar Square.

Internationally, Rabbi Janner-Klausner has spoken out against the treatment of refugees crossing the US-Mexico border by the Trump administration, saying "the numbing of empathy, the dehumanisation of other people through the encouragement of disdain are documented stages in history that have led to atrocities and even genocides".

Israel

Janner-Klausner is a progressive Zionist and considers Israel the spiritual and intellectual centre of Judaism and the Jewish people. She supports two states for Israel and Palestine as the sustainable and just solution to the present conflict, having facilitated Israeli-Palestinian dialogue for the European Union whilst living in Jerusalem and led tours to the West Bank with British Friends of Rabbis for Human Rights.

At the Limmud Conference in December 2013, Janner-Klausner delivered a JDOV speech about "Power and its Discontents", addressing themes of power and powerlessness in Judaism. Before the speech at JDOV or "Jewish Dreams, Observations and Visions", a British Jewish organisation inspired by TED talks, she wrote: "I strongly believe in inverting the power pyramid so that everyone claims their opportunity to play their part in decisions that affect themselves and their communities". Dr David Janner-Klausner was Programme and Planning Director at the United Jewish Israel Appeal and currently works as Director of Business Development at Commonplace Digital Ltd. He is the brother of Amos Oz, the Israeli author.