Rabbi John Rayner was born in Berlin in 1924 during the days of the Weimar Republic. At the age of fifteen, he
said good-bye to his parents and boarded a train on what was one of the last of the Kindertransports to England.
After gaining a First at Cambridge, he was ordained by Rabbi Israel Mattuck in 1953 and took up his first pulpit
at South London Liberal Synagogue in Streatham. In 1957, he began his new appointment at The Liberal Jewish
Synagogue, leaving London in 1963 in order to pursue a Graduate Fellowship at the Hebrew Union College in
Cincinnati. He returned to the LJS in 1965 and remained as Senior Rabbi until his 'retirement' in 1989. During a
distinguished and influential career, he was Honorary Director of Studies at Leo Baeck College and later on lecturer
in Liturgy and Codes.With Rabbi Chaim Stern, he co-edited Service of the Heart, Gate of Repentance, Passover
Haggadah and Siddur Lev Chadash. He was a compelling speaker and teacher, broadcasting on both television
and radio, influencing several generations of rabbinic students and touching the lives of probably thousands of
congregants.

This day conference is an opportunity to discover Rabbi Rayner's influence on progressive Jewish liturgy, Liberal
Judaism and interfaith dialogue. He was a powerful and passionate speaker on Ethical Zionism and progressive
Jewish halakhah (Jewish law) and is well-known for his finely crafted sermons which addressed Jewish and the
more worldly concerns of his day.

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