Neuberger, Julia (Babette Sarah) 1950-

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NEUBERGER, Julia (Babette Sarah) 1950-

PERSONAL: Born February 27, 1950, in London, England; daughter of Walter Manfred (a civil servant) and Alice (an art critic; maiden name, Rosenthal) Schwab; married Anthony John Neuberger (an academic), September 17, 1973; children: Harriet Elinor Clare, Matthew Benedick Robert. Education: Newnham College, Cambridge, B.A. (with honors), 1973, M.A. (with honors), 1975; attended Leo Baeck College (London, England), Rabbinic diploma. Politics: Liberal Democrat. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Office—King's Fund, 11-13 Cavendish Sq., London W1G 0AN, England.

CAREER: Ordained rabbi, 1977; South London Liberal Synagogue, London, England, rabbi, 1977-89; Leo Baeck College, London, England, lecturer and associate fellow, 1979-97; Newnham College, Cambridge, Cambridge, England, associate fellow, 1983-96; King's Fund College, London, England, associate fellow, 1993-97; University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland, chancellor, 1994-2000; King's Fund Institute (heath-care organization), London, England, chief executive, 1997—. Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, visiting fellow, 1991-92. Has served as chair for numerous institutions and events, including the Rabbinic Conference, Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues, 1983-85, and Camden and Islington Community Health Sciences, National Health Service Trust, 1993-97. Trustee for numerous organizations, including the Imperial War Museum, 1999—.

MEMBER: Royal Society of Arts (fellow), Patients Association (chair, 1988-91), Groucho Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Harkness fellow, Commonwealth Club of New York, 1991-92; recipient of eight honorary doctorates; honorary fellow, Mansfield College, Oxford, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Judaism (for children), Dinosaur, 1986, published as The Story of the Jews, illustrated by Chris and Hilary Evans, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1986.

Caring for Dying People of Different Faiths, Lisa Sainsbury Foundation (London, England), 1987.

(Editor) Days of Decision, four volumes, Macmillan (London, England), 1987.

Whatever's Happening to Women?: Promises, Practices, and Pay Offs, Kyle Cathie (London, England), 1991.

Liberating the Legacy: The Battles Women Still Have to Win, Kyle Cathie (London, England), 1991.

(Editor, with Canon John A. White) A Necessary End: Attitudes to Death, Macmillan (London, England), 1991.

(Editor) The Things That Matter: An Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry, Kyle Cathie (London, England), 1992, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1995.

Ethics and Healthcare: The Role of Research Ethics Committees in the United Kingdom, King's Fund Institute (London, England), 1992.

On Being Jewish, Heinemann (London, England), 1995.

(With Stephen Webster) The End or Merely the Beginning: The Place of Belief and Ideology in Later Life: Implications for Practice in Caring for Older People, Counsel & Care (London, England), 1996.

Dying Well: A Guide to Enabling a Good Death, Hochland & Hochland (Cheshire, England), 1999.

(With Bill New) Hidden Assets: Values and Decision-Making in the NHS, King's Fund Institute (London, England), 2002.

Contributor to Holy Show: Irish Artists and the Old Testament (exhibition catalogue), Graphic Studio (Dublin, Ireland), 2002; contributor of articles and reviews to professional journals and newspapers.

SIDELIGHTS: Rabbi, writer, and educator Julia Neuberger is the chief executive of the King's Fund, the most well-known health-care think-tank in Great Britain. Known for her intellect and her commitment to the promotion of ethical care under Britain's National Health Care system, as well as for being the first female rabbi in the world to have her own congregation, Neuberger is also an editor and the author of a book for children that profiles her Jewish faith. Judaism, published in the U.S. as The Story of the Jews and illustrated by Chris and Hilary Evans, focuses on the history and customs of the Jewish people. Neuberger also expands her discussion of what it means to be Jewish for an adult audience in her 1996 work On Being Jewish, which was praised as an "intelligent and reflective book" by London Observer contributor Anthony Julius.

In The Things That Matter: An Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry, Neuberger combines her spirituality with her equally strong feminist beliefs. A gathering of English and American poets who wrote from the eighteenth through the twentieth century, the volume includes the work of Charlotte Mew, H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and Stevie Smith among its sixty-seven contributors. Reviewing the collection for Booklist, Donna Seaman explained that Neuberger "compiled this volume . . . because she believes that women's spirituality and role in religion" have been largely ignored. While noting that most of the poems are conventional in rhyme and somewhat "outmoded" stylistically, Library Journal contributor Judy Clarence added that readers of The Things That Matter would nonetheless make "some wonderful discoveries."