The senior rabbi at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue in St John’s Wood, the flagship community of Liberal Judaism, took up her current post at the LJS in 2004. It is Rabbi Wright’s second stint there, as she was taken on as associate rabbi under Rabbi David Goldberg from 1986 to 1989. She spent the next 14 years at Radlett and Bushey Reform Synagogue. She has contributed to Hear Our Voice and Taking up the Timbrel, and most recently had the distinction of being the only woman whose sermon has been included in Rabbi Professor Marc Saperstein’s Jewish Preaching in Times of War.
Tell us about a typical week
I plan my diary on Sunday in readiness for the week with teaching, visits, service preparation and appointments. I wake up each day to find that pastoral and other emergencies are constantly arising, all of which need attention and everything has to be tightly squeezed into the time available.
What you like most about your role?
If it doesn’t sound too morbid, I am most at home when helping people towards the end of their life, or bereaved families. Overcoming the uneasiness of being with people at difficult times in their lives has been a huge learning curve. I love participating in activities at our synagogue’s nursery.
Tell us about your family life
The children — Gabrielle, who is 20, and Benedict, who is 18 — have been deeply supportive of my work. Both are dedicated to communal life and the education of the cheder’s children. When there is time, we’ll go to a concert together or the theatre. They both love literature and history and it’s a huge source of pleasure to be able to share these interests.
What do you do with your time off?
I swim four times a week and love the sea. I’ve been known to jump into the freezing cold North Sea off the coast of Norfolk. Holidays are in Cornwall or the Pyrenees — anywhere there is the sea or a mountain to climb. I love music, opera and the ballet, and always read poetry for inspiration for sermons.
Define your Judaism
At the heart of my life is an engagement with texts, particularly Tanakh, midrash and poetry. Whether narrative, prophetic or poetic, these texts challenge me constantly, they inform my life.
