Rabbi Yoni Wieder was inaugurated as chief rabbi of Ireland last week in a ceremony held in a Dublin synagogue packed with around 400 guests, including officials, ambassadors and leaders of other faiths.
Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth Sir Ephraim Mirvis, who himself served as chief rabbi of Ireland from 1985 to 1992, officiated the ceremony, which was chaired by Andrew Barling, chairman of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation.
In his inauguration address, Wieder spoke of the recent “renaissance” of Jewish life in Dublin, in part due to dozens of Israeli families relocating to the Irish capital to work in the high-tech industry.
Rabbi Wieder said he was extremely proud of the warmth with which the local Jewish community had embraced the newcomers, and delighted to see how quickly Israeli families have integrated with established ones. He described an upsurge in attendance and engagement in many areas of communal life in recent months, including, shul, school and adult education.
Wieder also spoke of the “deep hurt and isolation” felt by many Jews in Ireland, due to the strong anti-Israel stance adopted by the Irish government, opposition parties, universities, schools and across mainstream Irish media.
“Week after week I speak to senior members of this community, at once so proud in their Judaism and in their place within Irish society, who for decades have never ceased to be loyal and to contribute exceptionally to this country. And who now tell me that never before have they felt such a tension between those two identities. Never before have they felt their viewpoint as Jews be so delegitimized,” said Wieder.
A pre-recorded video from Israeli President Isaac Herzog was screened during the ceremony. Herzog is a grandson of Rabbi Yitzchak Isaac Halevy Herzog, who served as the first chief rabbi of Ireland from 1921 to 1936.
Herzog said that Wieder’s appointment “sends goosebumps and shivers in me, because the story of the Jews of Ireland is in many ways the story of the Jewish people—a small, beautiful community with strong ties of community, connection and heritage.”
Wieder is only the eighth chief rabbi of Ireland, and the first to be inaugurated since September 2001.