Jonathan David Magonet (born 2 August 1942)[1] is a British rabbi theologian, Vice-President of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, and a biblical scholar.
He was the long-time Principal (Rector or academic director), now retired, of London's Leo Baeck College, the first Liberal Jewish seminary of all of Europe since World War II.
Magonet was a trustee of the Maimonides Foundation, a charitable organisation promoting dialogue between Jews and Muslims.
Originally written for the Jewish Chronicle, they aimed to show that the Bible could still be a 'living' source of deep insight into human character.
[4] Magonet has described in the book's introduction the challenge of bringing to 'centre stage' characters like Shiphrah, Puah, Palti ben Laish and Ritzpah with only minimal information about them available from the text, and expressed the hope that readers would themselves go back to the texts to check out or challenge his interpretations.