{{short description|British Orthodox rabbi and politician (1948–2020)}} {{pp-move}} {{EngvarB|date= November 2015}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{distinguish|Yonason Sacks|Jonathan Sachs}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = [[Rabbi]] [[The Right Honourable]] | name = The Lord Sacks | honorific_suffix = | image = Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt"l.jpg | alt = Rabbi Jonathan Sacks smiling at the camera. | caption = Artistic portrait of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.yonasan.weebly.com/portraits.html | title=Gedolim Portraits }}</ref> | office = [[Chief Rabbi]] of the [[United Synagogue|United Hebrew Congregations]] of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] | term_start = 1 September 1991 | term_end = 1 September 2013 | predecessor = [[Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits|Immanuel, Lord Jakobovits]] | successor = [[Ephraim Mirvis]] | office1 = Member of the [[House of Lords]] | status1 = [[Lord Temporal]] | term_label1 = [[Life peer]]age | term_start1 = 1 September 2009 | term_end1 = 7 November 2020 | birth_name = Jonathan Henry Sacks | birth_date = {{Birth date|1948|3|8|df=yes}} | birth_place = Lambeth District of London, England | death_date = {{death date and age|2020|11|7|1948|3|8|df=y}} | death_place = London, England | spouse = {{marriage|Elaine Taylor<br />|1970}} | children = 3 | occupation = {{hlist|Rabbi|philosopher|theologian|author}} | education = {{Plainlist| * [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]] ([[Master of Arts (Cambridge)|MA Cantab]]) * [[New College, Oxford]] * [[King's College London]] ([[PhD]]) * [[Christ's College, Finchley]] }} | party = None ([[crossbench]]er) | blank1 = [[Semicha]] | data1 = {{ubl|[[London School of Jewish Studies]]|[[Etz Chaim Yeshiva (London)]]}} | website = {{official}} }}
'''Jonathan Henry Sacks, Baron Sacks''' (Hebrew: Yaakov Zvi, יעקב צבי) (8 March 1948{{spnd}}7 November 2020) was an English [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] [[rabbi]], philosopher, theologian, and author. Sacks served as the [[List of Chief Rabbis of the United Kingdom|Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth]] from 1991 to 2013. As the spiritual head of the [[United Synagogue]], the largest synagogue body in the United Kingdom, he was the [[Chief Rabbi]] of those [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] synagogues but was not recognized as the religious authority for the [[Haredi Judaism|Haredi]] [[Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations]] or for the progressive movements such as [[Conservative Judaism|Conservative]], [[Reform Judaism (United Kingdom)|Reform]], and [[Liberal Judaism (United Kingdom)|Liberal Judaism]].<ref>{{cite news | first= Hester | last= Abrams | title= Philosopher is new leader of Britain's Jews : Educational standards, disintegrating family concern rabbi |newspaper= [[Waterloo Region Record|The Record]] | location= [[Kitchener, Ontario]] | page= C11 | date= 7 December 1991 |quote= He is officially head of the mainstream United Synagogue, but is not recognized as religious leader by many in the progressive Reform and Liberal movements}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title= Chief Rabbi joins House of Lords | url= https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jul/13/chief-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-lords | newspaper= The Guardian | date= 13 July 2009 | access-date= 15 August 2009 | quote= The decision to confer a title on Sacks angered Jews from both the progressive and strictly Orthodox branches who did not recognise him as their religious leader | location= London | first= Riazat | last= Butt | archive-date= 6 September 2013 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130906234849/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/jul/13/chief-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-lords | url-status= live }}</ref> As Chief Rabbi, he formally carried the title of [[Av Beit Din]] (head) of the [[London Beth Din]]. At the time of his death, he was the Chief Rabbi Emeritus.<ref>Compare: {{cite news |last= Cohen |first= Justin |date= 20 July 2016 |title= Lord Sacks leads tributes to Alan Senitt at moving memorial |url= http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lord-sacks-leads-tributes-to-alan-senitt-at-moving-memorial/ |newspaper= [[Jewish News]] |location= London |access-date= 7 July 2017 |quote= The Chief Rabbi Emeritus said the one-time BBYO president and UJS chair would have been 'one of the great leaders of our time' [...]. |archive-date= 31 August 2017 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170831135525/http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lord-sacks-leads-tributes-to-alan-senitt-at-moving-memorial/ |url-status= live }}</ref>
After stepping down as Chief Rabbi, in addition to his international travelling and speaking engagements and prolific writing, Sacks served as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at [[New York University]] and as the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at [[Yeshiva University]]. He was also appointed Professor of Law, Ethics, and the Bible at [[King's College London]].<ref name="rabbisacks.org"/> He won the [[Templeton Prize]] (awarded for work affirming life's spiritual dimension) in 2016.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://religionnews.com/2016/03/02/lord-jonathan-sacks-wins-templeton-prize/ |title= Lord Jonathan Sacks wins Templeton Prize |first= Chris |last= Herlinger |date= 2 March 2016 |access-date= 24 November 2016 |archive-date= 25 December 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161225062824/http://religionnews.com/2016/03/02/lord-jonathan-sacks-wins-templeton-prize/ |url-status= live }}</ref> He was also a Senior Fellow to the [[Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights]].
==Early life== Jonathan Henry Sacks was born in the [[Lambeth]] district of London on 8 March 1948,<ref name=whoswho/> the son of Ashkenazi Jewish textile seller Louis David Sacks (died 1996)<ref>{{Cite web|last=Gjelten|first=Tom|date=November 9, 2020|title=Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Towering Intellect Of Judaism, Dies At 72|url=https://www.npr.org/2020/11/09/933230474/rabbi-jonathan-sacks-towering-intellect-of-judaism-dies-at-72|access-date=2021-09-06|website=NPR|language=en}}</ref> and his wife Louisa (née Frumkin; 1919–2010),<ref>{{Cite web|date=2010-09-26|title=Chief Rabbi's mother dies at 91|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/chief-rabbi-s-mother-dies-at-91-1.18445|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108214733/https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/chief-rabbi-s-mother-dies-at-91-1.18445|archive-date=8 November 2020|access-date=8 November 2020|website=[[The Jewish Chronicle]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.personal.briansacks.com/Some_Writing/In_memory_of_Libby_Sacks/in_memory_of_libby_sacks.html|title=In memory of Libby Sacks|website=www.personal.briansacks.com|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108214734/http://www.personal.briansacks.com/Some_Writing/In_memory_of_Libby_Sacks/in_memory_of_libby_sacks.html|url-status=live}}</ref> who came from a family of leading Jewish wine merchants.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jonathan-sacks-defender-faith-9222878.html|title=Jonathan Sacks: Defender of the faith|date=7 September 2001|website=The Independent|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108033341/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jonathan-sacks-defender-faith-9222878.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/rabbi-lord-sacks-obituary-tnnz99cbb|title=Lord Sacks obituary|date=8 November 2020 |via=www.thetimes.co.uk|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108004725/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rabbi-lord-sacks-obituary-tnnz99cbb|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eastendvintageglamour.org.uk/photoshoot/libby-frumkin-and-louis-sacks/|title=LIBBY FRUMKIN and LOUIS SACKS – East End Vintage Glamour|website=eastendvintageglamour.org.uk|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=29 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161229210140/http://eastendvintageglamour.org.uk/photoshoot/libby-frumkin-and-louis-sacks/|url-status=live}}</ref> He had three brothers named Brian, Alan, and Eliot, all of whom eventually made [[aliyah]].<ref name="auto">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/world/europe/jonathan-sacks-dead.html|title=Jonathan Sacks, the U.K.'s Inclusive Former Chief Rabbi, Dies at 72|first=Ari L.|last=Goldman|newspaper=The New York Times |date=9 November 2020}}</ref> He said that his father did not have "much Jewish education".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/jonathan-sacks-death-memorial|title=Remembering Rabbi Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020)|date=12 November 2020|website=Tablet Magazine}}</ref>
Sacks commenced his formal education at St Mary's Primary School and at [[Christ's College, Finchley]], his local schools.<ref name=whoswho/><ref>{{Cite web |last=Rumbelow |first=Alice Miles and Helen |date=2007-10-20 |title=Thought for the day: the Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks is aiming to be politically incorrect |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/thought-for-the-day-the-chief-rabbi-sir-jonathan-sacks-is-aiming-to-be-politically-incorrect-0n5bnqxpjkm |access-date=2025-11-24 |website=www.thetimes.com |language=en}}</ref> He completed his higher education at [[Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]], where he gained a first-class [[honours degree]] ([[Master of Arts (Cambridge)|MA]]) in Philosophy.
While a student at Cambridge, he travelled to New York City, where he met with rabbis [[Joseph Soloveitchik]] and [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]] to discuss a variety of issues relating to religion, faith, and philosophy. He later wrote, "Rabbi Soloveitchik had challenged me to think, Rabbi Schneerson had challenged me to lead."<ref name="auto"/> Schneerson urged Sacks to seek [[Semicha|rabbinic ordination]] and enter the rabbinate.<ref>Jonathan Sacks, [http://www.chabad.org/1690783 "How The Rebbe Changed My Life"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108214736/https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/video_cdo/aid/1690783/jewish/A-Story-in-Three-Acts.htm |date=8 November 2020 }}. 28 November 2011.</ref>
Sacks subsequently continued his postgraduate studies at [[New College, Oxford]],<ref name=whoswho/> and [[King's College London]], completing a [[PhD]] which the [[University of London]] awarded him in 1982.<ref name=phd>{{cite thesis|degree= PhD|first= Jonathan|last= Sacks|title= Rabbinic concepts of responsibility for others : a study of the Commandment of Rebuke and the idea of mutual surety|url= http://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b1525130|website= london.ac.uk|publisher= University of London|id= {{Copac| 2412494}}|year= 1982|access-date= 17 May 2018|archive-date= 8 November 2020|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20201108214736/https://catalogue.libraries.london.ac.uk/record=b1525130|url-status= live}}</ref> He received his rabbinic ordination from the [[London School of Jewish Studies]] and London's [[Etz Chaim Yeshiva (London)|Etz Chaim Yeshiva]],<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/testimony/judaism/rabbisachs/introduction.asp |title= Introduction - Rabbi Sacks - Testimony |access-date= 21 January 2014 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140202233147/http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/testimony/judaism/rabbisachs/introduction.asp | archive-date= 2 February 2014 }}</ref> with ''[[semikhah]]'' respectively from Rabbis [[Nahum Rabinovitch]] and [[Noson Ordman]].
==Career== Sacks's first rabbinic appointment (1978–1982) was as the Rabbi for the [[Golders Green]] synagogue in London. In 1983, he became Rabbi of the [[Western Marble Arch Synagogue]] in [[Central London]], a position he held until 1990. Between 1984 and 1990, Sacks also served as [[Principal (university)|Principal]] of Jews' College (now [[London School of Jewish Studies]]), the United Synagogue's [[Seminary#Jewish|rabbinical seminary]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.rabbisacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RABBI-LORD-JONATHAN-SACKS-extended-CV-September-20131.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=21 January 2014 |archive-date=1 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201181631/http://www.rabbisacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RABBI-LORD-JONATHAN-SACKS-extended-CV-September-20131.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Dr. Sacks was inducted to serve as [[Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth]] on 1 September 1991, a position he held until 1 September 2013.
Sacks became a [[Knight Bachelor]] in the [[2005 Birthday Honours]] "for services to the Community and to Inter-faith Relations".<ref>{{London Gazette |issue = 57665|date = 10 June 2005 |page=1 |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue= 58099 |date= 15 September 2006 |page=12615}}</ref> He was made an Honorary Freeman of the [[London Borough of Barnet]] in September 2006.<ref>[http://www.barnet.gov.uk/index/community-living/barnet-mayor/other-civic-dignitaries/honorary-freemen.htm Honorary Freemen of the London Borough of Barnet]. Barnet.gov.uk (29 September 2009). Retrieved on 3 December 2011 {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080602173333/http://www.barnet.gov.uk/index/community-living/barnet-mayor/other-civic-dignitaries/honorary-freemen.htm |date= 2 June 2008 }}</ref> On 13 July 2009 the [[House of Lords Appointments Commission]] announced that Sacks was recommended for a [[life peer]]age with a seat in the [[House of Lords]].<ref>{{cite news|url= http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443794021&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull|archive-url= https://archive.today/20120709125333/http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443794021&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull|url-status= dead|archive-date= 9 July 2012|title= UK chief rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks gets peerage|last= Paul|first= Jonny|date= 13 July 2009|newspaper=The Jerusalem Post|access-date= 20 July 2009}}</ref><ref>[http://www.lordsappointments.gov.uk/news/090713-twonew.aspx House of Lords Appointments Commission]. Lordsappointments.gov.uk (13 July 2009). Retrieved on 3 December 2011. {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110716021929/http://www.lordsappointments.gov.uk/news/090713-twonew.aspx |date= 16 July 2011}}</ref> He took the title "Baron Sacks of [[Aldgate]] in the City of London"<ref>{{London Gazette |issue= 59178 |date= 8 September 2009 |page=15388}}</ref> and sat as a [[crossbencher]].
A visiting professor at several universities in Britain, the United States, and Israel, Sacks held 16 honorary degrees, including a [[Doctor of Divinity|doctorate of divinity]] conferred on him in September 2001 by the then [[Archbishop of Canterbury]], [[George Carey]], to mark his first ten years in office as Chief Rabbi. In recognition of his work, Sacks won several international awards, including the Jerusalem Prize in 1995 for his contribution to diaspora Jewish life and The Ladislaus Laszt Ecumenical and Social Concern Award from [[Ben-Gurion University of the Negev|Ben Gurion University]] in Israel in 2011.<ref name="rabbisacks.org">{{Cite web|url=https://rabbisacks.org/about-us/|title=About Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=7 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201007064259/https://rabbisacks.org/about-us/|url-status=live}}</ref>
The author of 25 books, Sacks published commentaries on the [[siddur]] (daily prayerbook) and completed commentaries to the [[machzor]]im (festival prayerbook) for the [[Rosh Hashanah]], [[Yom Kippur]] and [[Pesach]]. His other books include, ''Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence'', and ''The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning''. His books won literary awards, including the Grawemeyer Prize for Religion in 2004 for ''The Dignity of Difference'', and a National Jewish Book Award in 2000 for ''A Letter in the Scroll''.<ref name="rabbisacks.org"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners?category=30766|title=Past Winners|website=Jewish Book Council|language=en|url-status=live|access-date=23 January 2020|archive-date=5 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605122003/https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners?category=30766}}</ref> [[Koren Publishers Jerusalem]] published ''The Koren Sacks Siddur'' in 2006, and is described by Koren as the "first new Orthodox Hebrew/English siddur in a generation".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Koren Sacks Siddur |url=https://korenpub.com/products/the-koren-sacks-siddur-1 |website=Koren Publishers |language=en}}</ref> ''Covenant & Conversation: Genesis'' was awarded a National Jewish Book Award in 2009,<ref name="Past Winners">{{Cite web|url=https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners?category=30771|title=Past Winners|website=Jewish Book Council|language=en|url-status=live|access-date=24 January 2020|archive-date=5 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605121427/https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/awards/national-jewish-book-awards/past-winners?category=30771}}</ref> and his commentary to the Passivor mahzor book won the 2013 Modern Jewish Thought and Experience Dorot Foundation Award from the [[Jewish Book Council]]<ref name="Past Winners"/> in the United States.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/sacks-passover-guide-scoops-prestigious-us-book-award/|title=Sacks' Passover guide scoops prestigious US book award|website=jewishnews.timesofisrael.com|date=16 January 2014 |access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=25 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161125115332/http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/sacks-passover-guide-scoops-prestigious-us-book-award/|url-status=live}}</ref> His ''Covenant & Conversation'' commentaries on the weekly Torah portion are read by thousands of people in Jewish communities around the world.<ref name="TorahCafe.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.torahcafe.com/scholar/chief-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks_0000000053.html?id=0000000053|title=Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks|website=www.torahcafe.com|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=23 September 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200923173750/https://www.torahcafe.com/scholar/chief-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks_0000000053.html?id=0000000053|url-status=live}}</ref> In September of 2025, [[Koren]] posthumously published a one-volume [[Torah]] with [[Masoretic Text]] and translation alongside his commentary as well as those commentators he had selected, including [[Rashi]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Stub |first1=Zev |title=Posthumous Bible commentary by ex-UK chief rabbi seeks to unseat a synagogue staple |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/posthumous-bible-commentary-by-ex-uk-chief-rabbi-seeks-to-unseat-a-synagogue-staple/ |work=The Times of Israel |date=1 September 2025}}</ref>
Sacks' contributions to wider British society have also been recognized. A regular contributor to national media, frequently appearing on [[BBC Radio 4]]'s ''[[Thought for the Day]]'' or writing the Credo column or opinion pieces in ''[[The Times]]'', Sacks was awarded The Sanford St Martin's Trust Personal Award for 2013 for "his advocacy of Judaism and religion in general". He was invited to the [[wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton]] as a representative of the Jewish community.<ref>{{cite news | url= https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13175842 | work= [[BBC News]] | title= Royal wedding guest list | date= 23 April 2011 | access-date= 20 June 2018 | archive-date= 18 September 2018 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180918041600/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13175842 | url-status= live }}</ref>
At a Gala Dinner held in Central London in May 2013 to mark the completion of the Chief Rabbi's time in office, [[Charles III]], at the time [[Prince of Wales]], called Sacks a "light unto this nation", "a steadfast friend" and "a valued adviser" whose "guidance on any given issue has never failed to be of practical value and deeply grounded in the kind of wisdom that is increasingly hard to come by".<ref>{{cite news | url= http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/108970/prince-pays-tribute-chief-rabbi-his-steadfast-friend | work= [[The Jewish Chronicle]] | title= Prince pays tribute to Chief Rabbi | date= 25 June 2013 | access-date= 20 January 2014 | archive-date= 1 February 2014 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140201220129/http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/108970/prince-pays-tribute-chief-rabbi-his-steadfast-friend | url-status= live }}</ref>
===Chief Rabbi=== In his installation address upon succeeding [[Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits|Immanuel Jakobovits]] as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth in September 1991, Sacks called for a Decade of Renewal which would "revitalize British Jewry's great powers of creativity".<ref name="jta.org">{{cite web|url=https://www.jta.org/1991/09/03/archive/new-british-chief-rabbi-speaks-of-need-for-decade-of-renewal|title=New British Chief Rabbi Speaks of Need for Decade of Renewal|date=3 September 1991|publisher=JTA|access-date=21 January 2014|archive-date=20 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140220095020/http://www.jta.org/1991/09/03/archive/new-british-chief-rabbi-speaks-of-need-for-decade-of-renewal|url-status=live}}</ref> He said this renewal should be based on five central values: "love of every Jew, love of learning, love of God, a profound contribution to British society and an unequivocal attachment to Israel."<ref name="jta.org"/> Sacks said he wanted to be "a catalyst for creativity, to encourage leadership in others, and to let in the fresh air of initiative and imagination".<ref name="jta.org"/> This led to a series of innovative communal projects including Jewish Continuity, a national foundation for Jewish educational programmes and outreach; the Association of Jewish Business Ethics; the Chief Rabbinate Awards for Excellence; the Chief Rabbinate Bursaries, and Community Development, a national scheme to enhance Jewish community life. The Chief Rabbi began his second decade of office with a call to 'Jewish Responsibility' and a renewed commitment to the ethical dimension of Judaism.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.torahinmotion.org/users/rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks|title=Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks|website=Torah In Motion|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=20 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190420200856/https://www.torahinmotion.org/users/rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks|url-status=live}}</ref> He was succeeded as Chief Rabbi by [[Ephraim Mirvis]] on 1 September 2013.
==Appointments held== In addition to serving as Chief Rabbi, Sacks held numerous appointments during his career including: *Professor of Judaic Thought, New York University, New York (announced 29 October 2013).<ref name=cv>[https://rabbisacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RABBI-LORD-JONATHAN-SACKS-extended-CV-January-2016-1.pdf Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks extended CV] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108214735/https://rabbisacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/RABBI-LORD-JONATHAN-SACKS-extended-CV-January-2016-1.pdf |date=8 November 2020 }}, ''rabbisacks.org'', January 2016. Accessed 8 November 2020</ref> *Professor of Jewish Thought, Yeshiva University, New York (announced 29 October 2013).<ref name=cv /> *Professor of Law, Ethics and the Bible at King's College, London (announced 5 December 2013)<ref name=cv /> *Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth (1 September 1991 – 1 September 2013)<ref name=cv /> * Lecturer in moral philosophy, Middlesex Polytechnic, 1971–1973<ref name=cv /> *Lecturer, Jews' College London, 1973–82; director of its rabbinic facility, 1983–1990; Principal, 1984–1990<ref name=cv /> *Visiting professor of philosophy at the [[University of Essex]], 1989–1990<ref name=cv /> *Sherman lecturer at the [[University of Manchester]], 1989.<ref name=cv /> *Riddell lecturer at [[Newcastle University]], 1993.<ref name=cv /> *Cook lecturer at the [[University of Oxford]], [[University of Edinburgh]] and the [[University of St Andrews]], 1996.<ref name=cv /> *Visiting professor at the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]], 1998–2004.<ref name=cv />
Sacks was also a frequent guest on both television and radio, and regularly contributed to the national press. He delivered the 1990 BBC [[Reith Lecture]]s on ''The Persistence of Faith''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gq0dl|title=Jonathan Sacks: The Persistence of Faith: 1990, The Reith Lectures - BBC Radio 4|access-date=12 August 2011|archive-date=3 August 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120803161057/http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00gq0dl|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Awards and honours== Sacks was awarded numerous prizes, including:<ref name=cv /> {{div col|colwidth=35em}} * 1995: Jerusalem Prize (Israel) * 2000: American National Jewish Book for ''A Letter in the Scroll'' * 2004: The Grawemeyer Prize for Religion (USA) * 2009: American National Jewish Book Award for ''Covenant & Conversation Genesis: The Book of Beginnings'' * 2010: The Norman Lamm Prize, Yeshiva University (USA) * 2010: The Abraham Kuyper Prize, Princeton Theological Seminary (USA) * 2011: The Ladislaus Laszt Ecumenical and Social Concern Award, Ben Gurion University (Israel) * 2011: Keter Torah Award, Open University (Israel) * 2013: The Sanford St Martin's Trust Personal Award for Excellence in Religious Broadcasting * 2013: American National Jewish Book Award for ''The Koren Sacks Pesah Mahzor'' * 2015: American National Jewish Book Award for ''Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence'' * 2016: Templeton Prize, "has spent decades bringing spiritual insight to the public conversation through mass media, popular lectures and more than two dozen books"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.templetonprize.org/templeton-prize-winners-2/|title=Templeton Prize Winners - Discover Laureates From 1973 to Today|website=Templeton Prize|access-date=8 November 2020|archive-date=22 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022095253/https://www.templetonprize.org/templeton-prize-winners-2/|url-status=live}}</ref> * 2021: Genesis Prize Lifetime Achievement Award, awarded posthumously by Israeli President Isaac Herzog.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.rabbisacks.org/news/president-herzog-honours-rabbi-sacks-with-genesis-lifetime-achievement-award/|title=President Herzog honours Rabbi Sacks with Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award | Rabbi Sacks |date=22 November 2021 }}</ref> {{div col end}}
==Philosophy and views== Much has been written about Sacks' philosophical contribution to Judaism and beyond. These include: (1) a volume on his work entitled ''Universalizing Particularity'' that forms part of The Library of Contemporary Jewish Philosophers series, edited by Hava Tirosh-Samuelson and Aaron W. Hughes;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jonathan-Sacks-Universalizing-Particularity-Tirosh-Samuelson/dp/B00L6Z97B6/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1417771891&sr=8-4&keywords=universalizing%20particularity|title=[(Jonathan Sacks: Universalizing Particularity )]|first=Hava|last=Tirosh-Samuelson|date=1 October 2013|publisher=Brill|via=Amazon}}</ref> (2) a book entitled ''Radical Responsibility'' edited by Michael J. Harris, Daniel Rynhold and [[Tamra Wright]];<ref name="Radical Responsibility">{{cite book|title=Radical Responsibility:: Celebrating the Thought of Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks|first=Michael J.|last=Harris|editor-first1=Daniel|editor-last1=Rynhold|editor-first2=Tamra|editor-last2=Wright|date=1 January 2013|publisher=Maggid|id={{ASIN|1592643663|country=uk}}}}</ref> and (3) a book entitled ''Morasha Kehillat Yaakov'' edited by Rabbi Michael Pollak and Dayan Shmuel Simons.<ref>{{cite book|title=Morasha Kehillat Yaakov: Essays in Honour of Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks|first1=Michael|last1=Pollak|first2=Shmuel|last2=Simons|editor-first1=Rabbi Michael|editor-last1=Pollak|editor-first2=Dayan Shmuel|editor-last2=Simons|date=1 October 2014|publisher=The Toby Press|id={{ASIN|1592643906|country=uk}}}}</ref>
===Early influences=== In a pamphlet written to mark the completion of his time as Chief Rabbi entitled "A Judaism Engaged with the World",<ref name="engaged">[http://www.rabbisacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Judaism_Engaged_JSacks_webpdf2.pdf] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715071406/http://www.rabbisacks.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Judaism_Engaged_JSacks_webpdf2.pdf|date=15 July 2015}} A Judaism Engaged with the World</ref> Sacks cites three individuals who have had a profound impact on his own philosophical thinking.
The first figure was the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi [[Menachem Mendel Schneerson]] who "was fully aware of the problem of the missing Jews... inventing the idea, revolutionary in its time, of Jewish outreach... [He] challenged me to lead."<ref name="engaged" />{{rp|10}} Indeed, Sacks called him "one of the greatest Jewish leaders, not just of our time, but of all time".<ref>Jonathan Mark, [http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/chief_rabbi_and_rebbe The Chief Rabbi And The Rebbe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110203825/http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/chief_rabbi_and_rebbe |date=10 November 2014 }}. ''The Jewish Week'', 11/29/11.</ref>
The second was Rabbi [[Joseph Soloveitchik]] whom Sacks described as "the greatest Orthodox thinker of the time [who] challenged me to think."<ref name="engaged" />{{rp|10–11}} Sacks argued that for Rav Soloveichik "Jewish philosophy, he said, had to emerge from [[halakha]]h, Jewish law. Jewish thought and Jewish practice were not two different things but the same thing seen from different perspectives. Halakhah was a way of living a way of thinking about the world – taking abstract ideas and making them real in everyday life."<ref name="engaged" />{{rp|11}}
The third figure was Rabbi [[Nahum Rabinovitch]], a former principal of the [[London School of Jewish Studies]]. Sacks called Rabinovitch "One of the great Maimonidean scholars of our time, [who] taught us, his students, that Torah leadership demands the highest intellectual and moral courage. He did this in the best way possible: by personal example. The following thoughts, which are his, are a small indication of what I learned from him – not least that Torah is, among other things, a refusal to give easy answers to difficult questions."<ref>[http://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5768-shemot-of-what-was-moses-afraid/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150910150218/http://www.rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation-5768-shemot-of-what-was-moses-afraid/|date=10 September 2015}} Of What Was Moses Afraid? Covenant & Conversation for Shemot 5768 by R. Sacks</ref>
===Universalism vs particularism=== Writing of Sacks as a rabbi, social philosopher, proponent of interfaith dialogue and a public intellectual, Tirosh-Samuelson and Hughes note that "[Sacks's] vision—informed as it is by the concerns of modern Orthodoxy—is paradoxically one of the most universalizing voices within contemporary Judaism. Sacks possesses a rare ability to hold in delicate balance the universal demands of the modern, multicultural world with the particularism associated with Judaism."<ref>{{cite book |editor=Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Aaron W. Hughes |year=2013 |title=Jonathan Sacks: Universalizing Particularity |publisher=Brill |isbn=9789004249813 |chapter=Jonathan Sacks: An Intellectual Portrait |pages=1–20}}</ref>{{rp|1}} This is a view supported by Rabbi Nathan Lopez Cardozo, who wrote in ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' that Sacks's "confidence in the power of Judaism and its infinite wisdom enabled him to enter the lion's den, taking on famous philosophers, scientists, religious thinkers and sociologists and showing them that Judaism had something to teach that they couldn't afford to miss if they wanted to be at the forefront of philosophy and science."<ref>"The rebellion of Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks", ''The Jerusalem Post'', 7 September 2013</ref> Harris and Rynhold, in their introduction to ''Radical Responsibility'', argued: "The special contribution made by the thought of Chief Rabbi Sacks is that it not only continues the venerable Jewish philosophical tradition of maintaining traditional faith in the face of external intellectual challenges, but also moves beyond this tradition by showing how core Jewish teachings can address the dilemmas of the secular world itself. What make Lord Sacks' approach so effective is that he is able to do so without any exception of the wider world taking on Judaism's theological beliefs."<ref name="Radical Responsibility"/>{{rp|xvi}}
===Torah v'Chokhma=== The framework for Sacks' philosophical approach and his interaction between the universal and the particular is not too dissimilar from [[Modern Orthodox Judaism#Philosophy|those positions]] adopted by other leading Orthodox thinkers of recent times. The favoured phrase of Rabbi [[Samson Raphael Hirsch]] was ''[[Torah im Derech Eretz|Torah im derekh eretz]]'', 'Torah with general culture'; for Rabbi [[Norman Lamm]] it was ''[[Torah Umadda|Torah u-mada]]'', 'Torah and Science'. For Sacks, his favoured phrase was ''Torah vehokhmah'', 'Torah and Wisdom'. As noted in the introduction to ''Radical Responsibility'': "''Torah'', for Jonathan Sacks represents the particularistic, inherited teachings of Judaism, while ''hokhmah'' (wisdom) refers to the universal realm of the sciences and humanities."<ref name="Radical Responsibility"/>{{rp|xviii}} Framed in religious terms, as Sacks sets out in his book ''Future Tense'': :"[[Chokhmah]] is the truth we discover; Torah is the truth we inherit. Chokhmah is the universal language of humankind; Torah is the specific heritage of Israel. Chokhmah is what we attain by being in the image of God; Torah is what guides Jews as the people of God. Chokhmah is acquired by seeing and reasoning; Torah is received by listening and responding. Chokhmah tells us what is; Torah tells us what ought to be."<ref>Jonathan Sacks, ''Future Tense'' (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2009), p.221</ref>
Tirosh-Samuelson and Hughes are of the opinion that whilst ''Torah v'Chokhmah'' is certainly a valid overarching framework, they note that Sacks' perspective is one rooted in [[modern orthodoxy]]: "Although he will try to understand various denominations of Judaism, he is always quick to point out that Orthodoxy cannot recognize the legitimacy of interpretations of Judaism that abandon fundamental beliefs of halakhic (Jewish law) authority. Judaism that departs from the truth and acceptance of the halakha is a departure from authentic Judaism and, he reasons, is tantamount to the accommodation of secularism. So, while Sacks will develop a highly inclusive account of the world's religions, there were times when he was critical of the denominations ''within'' Judaism."<ref>Universalizing Particularity, p.7</ref>
==="No one creed has a monopoly on spiritual truth"=== After the publication of his book ''The Dignity of Difference'', a group of [[Haredi]] rabbis, most notably Rabbis [[Yosef Shalom Elyashiv]] and [[Bezalel Rakow]], accused Sacks of heresy against what they consider the traditional Orthodox viewpoint. According to them, some words seemed to imply an endorsement of pure relativism between religions, and that Judaism is not the sole true religion, e.g. "No one creed has a monopoly on spiritual truth." This led him to rephrase more clearly some sentences in the book for its second edition, though he refused to recall books already in the stores.<ref name="Petre">{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1422145/Chief-Rabbi-revises-book-after-attack-by-critics.html | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Chief Rabbi revises book after attack by critics | first=Jonathan | last=Petre | date=15 February 2003 | access-date=7 May 2010 | archive-date=5 June 2011 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605081347/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1422145/Chief-Rabbi-revises-book-after-attack-by-critics.html | url-status=live }}</ref>
In his "Preface to the Second Edition" of the book, Sacks wrote that certain passages in the book had been misconstrued: He had already explicitly criticised cultural and religious relativism in his book, and he did not deny Judaism's uniqueness. He also stressed, however, that mainstream rabbinic teachings teach that wisdom, righteousness, and the possibility of a true relationship with God are all available in non-Jewish cultures and religions as an ongoing heritage from the covenant that God made with Noah and all his descendants, so the tradition teaches that one does not need to be Jewish to know God or truth, or to attain salvation.<ref name="Rabbi Jonathan Sacks 2003">Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, ''The Dignity of Difference'', 2nd edition, 2003, pp. vii, 52–65</ref><ref name="chiefrabbi.org">[http://www.chiefrabbi.org/ReadArtical.aspx?id=454 Faith Lectures: Jewish Identity: The Concept of a Chosen People]. Chief Rabbi (1 December 1990). Retrieved on 3 December 2011. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120417184347/http://www.chiefrabbi.org/ReadArtical.aspx?id=454 |date=17 April 2012 }}</ref> As this diversity of covenantal bonds implies, however, traditional Jewish sources do clearly deny that any one creed has a monopoly on spiritual truth. Monopolistic and simplistic claims of universal truth he has characterized as imperialistic, pagan and Platonic, and not Jewish at all.<ref>See Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, ''The Dignity of Difference'', Chapter 3: "Exorcising Plato's Ghost," and reaffirmed in his book, ''Future Tense'', 2009, Chapter 4: "The Other: Judaism, Christianity and Islam."</ref> The book received international acclaim, winning the [[Grawemeyer Award]] for Religion in 2004.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://grawemeyer.org/religion/previous-winners/2004-jonathan-sacks.html |title=2004 - Jonathan Sacks — University of Louisville |access-date=9 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201201639/http://grawemeyer.org/religion/previous-winners/2004-jonathan-sacks.html |archive-date=1 February 2014}}</ref>
===Efforts to accommodate Haredi Jews=== A book by the British historian and journalist Meir Persoff, ''Another Way, Another Time'', has argued that "Sacks's top priority has been staying in the good graces of the Haredi, or strictly Orthodox, faction, whose high birthrate has made it the fastest-growing component of British Jewry."<ref name="MP9996">{{cite news |url=http://www.thejc.com/blogpost/is-sacks-britain%E2%80%99s-last-chief-rabbi |title=Is Sacks Britain's Last Chief Rabbi? |work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]] |date=16 May 2010 |access-date=12 October 2013 |author=MP9996 |archive-date=15 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015101317/http://www.thejc.com/blogpost/is-sacks-britain%E2%80%99s-last-chief-rabbi |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>Meir Persoff (2008), ''[https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/13444/ Another way, another time: an academic response to Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks' installation address, a decade of Jewish renewal.]'' PhD thesis, [[Middlesex University]]. The published book (2010) was considerably longer than the thesis.<br />For a critical review of Persoff's book see Elkan D. Levy (2011), ''Jewish Journal of Sociology'' '''[https://archive.jpr.org.uk/download?id=2786 53]''', pp.87-93<br />See also Miri Freud-Kandel (2011), [http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30160 review] for H-Judaic, [[H-Net]]</ref>
===Relationship with the non-Orthodox denominations=== In 1990, when he was Chief Rabbi-elect, he wrote to [[Sidney Brichto]], a [[Liberal Judaism (United Kingdom)|Liberal]] rabbi, about Brichto's 1987 proposals. Brichto had advocated for a historical compromise between the Orthodox rabbinate and the non-Orthodox denominations. Among the proposals were radical changes to the conversion process for prospective converts in the non-Orthodox streams. These streams would stop processing their own [[conversion to Judaism|conversions to Judaism]]. Instead, their prospective converts would have their status conferred on them by an Orthodox [[Beit Din]]. The Beit Din would be expected to show more leniency than usual, only expecting that those before them demonstrate knowledge of Orthodox practice rather than observance.<ref name=jcohen>Cohen, Jeffrey (18 November 2008) [https://www.thejc.com/judaism/how-chief-rabbis-have-battled-against-reform-yy7ycrjz How Chief Rabbis have battled against Reform] ''The Jewish Chronicle''. Retrieved on 3 January 2025</ref>
The proposal had been rejected by the incumbent Chief Rabbi, [[Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits]]. However, in his letter to Brichto, Sacks wrote: "As soon as I read your article. ... I called it publicly 'the most courageous statement by a non-Orthodox Jew this century'. I felt it was a genuine way forward. Others turned out not to share my view." He continued: "It will be a while—18 months—before I take up office. But I believe we can still explore that way forward together. For if we do not move forward, I fear greatly for our community and for Am Yisrael."<ref name=jcohen />
Sacks provoked considerable controversy in the Anglo-Jewish community in 1996 when he refused to attend the funeral service of the late [[Reform Judaism|Reform]] Rabbi [[Hugo Gryn]] and for a private letter he had written in [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], which (in translation) asserted that Auschwitz survivor Gryn was "among those who destroy the faith", was leaked and published. He wrote further that he was an "enemy" of the Reform, Liberal and Masorti movements, leading some to reject the notion that he was "Chief Rabbi" for all Jews in Britain. He attended a memorial meeting for Gryn, a move that brought the wrath of some in the ultra-Orthodox community.<ref name="Defender">{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jonathan-sacks-defender-of-the-faith-9222878.html |title=Jonathan Sacks: Defender of the faith |work=[[The Independent]] |date=8 September 2001 |access-date=28 November 2015 |archive-date=9 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209005237/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/jonathan-sacks-defender-of-the-faith-9222878.html |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">Ian Burrell, [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/leaked-letter-widens-schism-in-jewry-1272921.html "Leaked letter widens schism in Jewry"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170831130200/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/leaked-letter-widens-schism-in-jewry-1272921.html |date=31 August 2017}}, ''The Independent'', 15 March 1997</ref> Rabbi Dow Marmur, a Canada-based progressive Rabbi, argued that after attending the memorial service, Sacks then attempted to placate the ultra-Orthodox community, an attempt which Marmur has described as "neurotic and cowardly."<ref name="Criticised">{{cite news |url=http://www.thejc.com/news/40113/lord-sacks-criticised-progressive-rabbi |title=Lord Sacks criticised by progressive rabbi |work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]] |date=22 October 2010 |access-date=12 October 2013 |first=Simon |last=Rocker |archive-date=15 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015101251/http://www.thejc.com/news/40113/lord-sacks-criticised-progressive-rabbi |url-status=live}}</ref>
Later, in a letter to ''[[The Jewish Chronicle]]'' in May 2013, Jackie Gryn, the widow of Rabbi [[Hugo Gryn]], wrote: "I feel the time has come for me to lay to rest, once and for all , the idea … that there ever was a 'Hugo Gryn Affair', as far as I am concerned, regarding the absence of the Chief Rabbi at the funeral of my late husband, Hugo… From the beginning, relations were cordial and sympathetic and have remained so", she wrote. "There has never been any personal grievance between us concerning his non-attendance at the funeral, which promoted such venomous and divisive comments and regrettably continues to do so."<ref name="No more">{{cite news |url=http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/107306/no-more-talk-gryn-affair-says-hugos-wife |title=No more talk of Gryn Affair, says Hugo's wife |work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]] |date=9 May 2013 |access-date=28 November 2015 |author=Simon Rocker |location=London |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208200857/http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/107306/no-more-talk-gryn-affair-says-hugos-wife |url-status=live}}</ref>
Sacks responded to the incident by rethinking his relationship with the non-Orthodox movements, eventually developing what he called the "two principles". Responding to an interview shortly before his retirement, he wrote that "You try and make things better in the future. As a result of the turbulence at that time, I was forced to think this whole issue through and I came up with these two principles; on all matters that affect us as Jews regardless of our religious differences we work together regardless of our religious differences, and on all things that touch our religious differences we agree to differ, but with respect. As a result of those two principles, relations between Reform and Orthodox have got much better and are actually a model for the rest of the Jewish world. Progressive rabbis sit with me on the top table of the Council of Christians and Jews, we stand together for Israel. All of this flowed from those two principles. Until then there had been a view never to do anything with the non-Orthodox movements but once you thought it through you saw that there were all sorts of opportunities."<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sacks|first1=Jonathan|title=Lord Sacks: The full interview (The Jewish News)|url=http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lord-sacks-the-full-interview//|website=The Times of Israel|access-date=19 August 2017|date=21 August 2013|archive-date=19 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819070629/http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/lord-sacks-the-full-interview//|url-status=live}}</ref>
Sacks years earlier (2004) drew some criticism when he and his beit din prevented the retired Rabbi [[Louis Jacobs]], who had helped establish the British branch of the [[Conservative Judaism|Masorti movement]], from being called up for the [[Torah reading|reading of the Torah]] on the Saturday before his granddaughter's wedding.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article682446.ece |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |title=Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs |date=4 July 2006 |access-date=7 May 2010 |archive-date=4 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604045732/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article682446.ece |url-status=dead}}</ref>
===Secularism and Europe's changing demographics=== Sacks expressed concern at what he regarded as the negative effects of materialism and secularism in European society, arguing that they undermined the basic values of family life and lead to selfishness. In 2009, Sacks gave an address claiming that Europeans have chosen consumerism over the self-sacrifice of parenting children, and that "the major assault on religion today comes from the neo-Darwinians". He argued that Europe is in population decline "because non-believers lack shared values of family and community that religion has".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/6507782/Europeans-too-selfish-to-have-children-says-Chief-Rabbi.html |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |title=Europeans too selfish to have children, says Chief Rabbi |date=5 November 2009 |access-date=7 May 2010 |archive-date=2 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120102050939/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/6507782/Europeans-too-selfish-to-have-children-says-Chief-Rabbi.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/05/birth-rate-chief-rabbi-sacks |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=Falling birth rate is killing Europe, says chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks |first=Riazat |last=Butt |date=5 November 2009 |access-date=7 May 2010 |archive-date=8 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130908074226/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/nov/05/birth-rate-chief-rabbi-sacks |url-status=live }}</ref>
===Consumerism and Steve Jobs=== Sacks made remarks at an inter-faith reception attended by [[Elizabeth II|the Queen]], in November 2011, in which he criticised what he believed to be the selfish consumer culture that has only brought unhappiness. "The consumer society was laid down by the late [[Steve Jobs]] coming down the mountain with two tablets, iPad one and iPad two, and the result is that we now have a culture of iPod, iPhone, iTune, i, i, i. When you're an individualist, egocentric culture and you only care about 'I', you don't do terribly well."<ref>[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/steve-jobs/8899737/Chief-Rabbi-blames-Apple-for-helping-create-selfish-society.html Chief Rabbi blames Apple for helping create selfish society] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180912092217/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/steve-jobs/8899737/Chief-Rabbi-blames-Apple-for-helping-create-selfish-society.html |date=12 September 2018 }}. ''Telegraph''. Retrieved on 3 December 2011.</ref><ref>[http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/otoh/2011/11/11121-rabbi-vs-steve-jobs-ithis-ithat-cause-sadness/index.htm Rabbi vs. Steve Jobs: iThis & iThat cause sadness – OTOH: On the other hand] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111211161446/http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/otoh/2011/11/11121-rabbi-vs-steve-jobs-ithis-ithat-cause-sadness/index.htm |date=11 December 2011 }}. Blogs.computerworlduk.com. Retrieved on 3 December 2011.</ref> In a later statement, the Chief Rabbi's office said "The Chief Rabbi meant no criticism of either Steve Jobs personally or the contribution Apple has made to the development of technology in the 21st century."<ref>Anna Leach, [https://www.theregister.com/2011/11/22/rabbi_has_no_criticisms_of_apple_technology_uses_ipad_everyday/ Chief Rabbi: I admire Jobs and Apple and use my iPad daily] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805112400/https://www.theregister.com/2011/11/22/rabbi_has_no_criticisms_of_apple_technology_uses_ipad_everyday/ |date=5 August 2020 }}, ''[[The Register]]'', 22 November 2011</ref>
===Position on gay marriage=== In July 2012 a group of prominent British Jews criticised Sacks for opposing plans to allow [[civil marriage]] for gays and lesbians.<ref name="Gay marriage">{{cite news | url=http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/69523/chief-rabbi-lord-sacks-attacked-over-gay-marriage-opposition | title=Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks attacked over gay marriage opposition | work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]] | date=5 July 2012 | access-date=12 October 2013 | last=Rocker | first=Simon | archive-date=15 October 2013 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131015101304/http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/69523/chief-rabbi-lord-sacks-attacked-over-gay-marriage-opposition | url-status=live }}</ref> He said that he understood "the fear that gays have of prejudice and persecution"<ref name="plight of gays in Britain">{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10264449/I-understand-gay-peoples-fears-says-Chief-Rabbi-Lord-Sacks.html | title=I understand gay people's fears, says Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks | work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] | date=25 August 2013 | access-date=27 November 2016 | last=Malnick | first=Edward | archive-date=27 November 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127224246/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10264449/I-understand-gay-peoples-fears-says-Chief-Rabbi-Lord-Sacks.html | url-status=live }}</ref> and went on to say, in a lecture on the institution of marriage, that a world that persecutes homosexuals is one "to which we should never return."<ref name="The love that brings new life into the world – Rabbi Sacks on the institution of marriage">{{cite web|last1=Sacks|first1=Jonathan|title=Rabbi|url=http://www.rabbisacks.org/love-brings-new-life-world-rabbi-sacks-institution-marriage/|publisher=humanum.global|access-date=27 November 2016|date=17 November 2014|archive-date=27 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127153502/http://www.rabbisacks.org/love-brings-new-life-world-rabbi-sacks-institution-marriage/|url-status=live}}</ref>
{{cquote | I fully understood... that gays, not just Jews, were sent to the concentration camps, and I did not want to become a voice that would be caught up in a very polarised debate and be seen to be heartless towards the gays in our own community. I am not heartless towards them, I really seek to understand them and they seek to understand where I am coming from. – Rabbi Jonathan Sacks<ref name="plight of gays in Britain" /> }}
===Interfaith dialogue=== [[File:Religious Leaders, World Economic Forum 2009 Annual Meeting.jpg|thumb|300x300px|Jonathan Sacks (second from left) with [[George Carey]], [[Mustafa Cerić]], and [[Jim Wallis]] at the 2009 [[World Economic Forum]]]] Sacks was an advocate of interfaith dialogue and sat on the Board of World Religious Leaders for the [[Elijah Interfaith Institute]].<ref>[http://www.elijah-interfaith.org/index.php?id=732 The Elijah Interfaith Institute] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141008074833/http://www.elijah-interfaith.org/index.php?id=732 |date=8 October 2014 }} - Jewish Members of the Board of World Religious Leaders</ref>
===Politics in the United States=== In October 2017, Jonathan Sacks inveighed against a "politics of anger" he said was corroding the fabric of U.S. society. "The politics of anger that's emerged in our time is full of danger," Sacks said. He decried the breakdown of American society into narrower and narrower identities that nurtured a "culture of grievances." Sacks warned that "The social contract is still there, but the social covenant is being lost."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.aei.org/research-products/speech/2017-irving-kristol-award-recipient-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks-remarks/|title=2017 Irving Kristol Award recipient Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks' remarks - AEI|work=American Enterprise Institute - AEI |access-date=10 November 2020|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108010450/https://www.aei.org/research-products/speech/2017-irving-kristol-award-recipient-rabbi-lord-jonathan-sacks-remarks/|url-status=live}}</ref>
===On antisemitism=== In a June 2019 debate on anti-Semitism in the House of Lords, Sacks stated that "there is hardly a country in the world, certainly not a single country in Europe, where Jews feel safe" and that societies tolerating anti-Semitism had "forfeited all moral credibility".<ref>{{cite news |title=UK rabbi to House of Lords: Rise in antisemitism today like Holocaust-era - Diaspora - Jerusalem Post |url=https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/UK-rabbi-to-House-of-Lords-Rise-in-antisemitism-today-similar-to-Holocaust-era-593269 |access-date=22 June 2019 |work=jpost.com |archive-date=22 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622051637/https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/UK-rabbi-to-House-of-Lords-Rise-in-antisemitism-today-similar-to-Holocaust-era-593269 |url-status=live }}</ref> Additionally, Sacks equated anti-Semitism to a "mutating virus".<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-09-27|title=The Mutating Virus: Understanding Antisemitism|url=https://rabbisacks.org/mutating-virus-understanding-antisemitism/|access-date=2020-12-01|website=Rabbi Sacks|language=en-GB}}</ref>
== Public lectures == In 2013, Sacks delivered the twenty-sixth [[Erasmus Lecture]], titled ''On Creative Minorities,'' hosted by ''[[First Things]]'' magazine and the Institute on Religion and Public Life. In his lecture, Sacks discussed the role of faith communities as “creative minorities” that sustain moral and cultural vitality in societies experiencing secularization and fragmentation. Drawing on historical, theological, and sociological insights, he urged religious groups to engage the public sphere constructively while remaining faithful to their traditions.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Sacks |first=Jonathan |title=On Creative Minorities |url=https://firstthings.com/on-creative-minorities/ |website=First Things |date=January 2014 }}</ref>
==Publications== ;As author {{div col|colwidth=35em}} * ''The Koren Shalem Humash'' (Koren, 2025) {{ISBN|9789657765173}} * ''I Believe: A Weekly reading of the Jewish Bible'' (Koren, 2022) {{ISBN|9781592645961}} * ''Studies in Spirituality: A Weekly reading of the Jewish Bible'' (Koren, 2021) {{ISBN|9781592645763}} * ''Judaism's Life-Changing Ideas: A Weekly reading of the Jewish Bible'' (Koren, 2020) {{ISBN|9781592645527}} * ''Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2020) {{ISBN|9781473617315}} * ''Covenant & Conversation: Deuteronomy: Renewal of the Sinai Covenant'' (Koren, 2019) {{ISBN|9781592640232}} * ''Covenant & Conversation: Numbers: the Wilderness Years'' (Koren, 2017) {{ISBN| 9781592640232}} * ''Essays on Ethics: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible'' (Koren, 2016) {{ISBN|9781592644490|}} * ''Lessons in Leadership: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible'' (Koren, 2015) {{ISBN|9781592644322}} * ''Not in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2015) {{ISBN|9781473616516}} * ''Covenant & Conversation: Leviticus, the Book of Holiness'' (Koren, 2015) {{ISBN|9781592640225}} * ''The Koren Sacks Pesach Mahzor'' (Koren, 2013) {{ISBN|9789653013179}} * ''The Koren Sacks Yom Kippur Mahzor'' (Koren, 2012) {{ISBN|9789653013469}} * ''The Koren Sacks Rosh Hashana Mahzor'' (Koren, 2011) {{ISBN|9789653013421}} * ''The Great Partnership: God Science and the Search for Meaning'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2011) {{ISBN|9780340995259}} * ''Covenant and Conversation: Exodus'' (Koren, Jerusalem, 2010) {{ISBN|9781592640218}} * ''Future Tense'' (Hodder & Stoughton, 2009) {{ISBN|9780340979853}} * ''Covenant and Conversation: Genesis'' (Koren, 2009) {{ISBN|9781592640201}} * ''The Koren (Sacks) Siddur'' (Koren, 2009) {{ISBN|9789653012172}} * ''The Home We Build Together'' (Continuum, 2007) {{ISBN|9780826423498}} * ''[[Authorised Daily Prayer Book]]'' (HarperCollins, 2006) {{ISBN|9780007200917}} * ''To Heal a Fractured World'' (Continuum, 2005) {{ISBN|9780826480392}} * ''From Optimism to Hope'' (Continuum, 2004) {{ISBN|9780826474810}} * ''Rabbi Jonathan Sacks's Haggadah'' (Harper Collins, 2003) {{ISBN|9789653013421}} * ''The Dignity of Difference'' (Continuum, 2002) {{ISBN|9780826468505}} * ''Radical Then, Radical Now'' (published in the US as ''A Letter in the Scroll'') (Continuum, 2001) {{ISBN|9780826473363}} * ''Celebrating Life'' (Continuum, 2006) {{ISBN|9780826473370}} * ''Morals and Markets'' (Occasional Paper 108) (Institute of Economic Affairs, 1998) {{ISBN|0255364245}} * ''The Politics of Hope'' (Vintage, 2000) {{ISBN|9780224043298}} * ''The Persistence of Faith'' (Continuum, 2005) - based on his [[BBC]] [[Reith Lectures]] series {{ISBN|9780297820857}} * ''One People: Tradition, Modernity and Jewish Unity'' (The Littman Library, 1993) {{ISBN|9781874774013}} * ''Community of Faith'' (Peter Halban, 1995) {{ISBN|9781870015592}} * ''Faith in the Future'' (Darton, Longman and Todd, 1995) {{ISBN|9780232520989}} * ''Will We Have Jewish Grandchildren?'' (Vallentine Mitchell, 1994) {{ISBN|9780853032823}} * ''Crisis and Covenant'' (Manchester University Press, 1992) {{ISBN|0719033004}} * ''Arguments for the Sake of Heaven'' (Jason Aronson, 1991) {{ISBN|0876687834}} * ''Tradition in an Untraditional Age'' (Vallentine Mitchell, 1990) {{ISBN|0853032394}}{{div col end}} ;As editor * ''Torah Studies: Discourses'' by [[Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson]] (Kehot, New York, 1996) {{ISBN|0826604935}} * ''Orthodoxy Confronts Modernity'' (Ktav, New York, 1991) {{ISBN|0881253634}} * ''Tradition and Transition'' (Jews College Publications, 1986) {{ISBN|095121490X}}
===Festschrift=== *{{cite book |editor-last1= Pollak|editor-first1= Michael |editor-last2= Simons|editor-first2= Shmuel |date= 2014|title= Morasha kehillat Yaakov : essays in honour of Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks|location= London |publisher= London Beth Din |isbn= 9781592643905}}
==Personal life== Sacks married Elaine Taylor in 1970,<ref name=whoswho/> and together they had three children: Joshua, Dina and Gila.<ref name=whoswho>{{Who's Who | author=Anon| title=Sacks | id = U33626 | year = 2017 | doi =10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.33626 | edition = online [[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford}}</ref> He was a [[Jewish vegetarianism|vegetarian]].<ref>{{cite web |last= Sacks |first= Jonathan |author-link= Jonathan Sacks |title= Faith Lectures: The Messianic Idea Today |url= http://www.rabbisacks.org/faith-lectures-the-messianic-idea-today/ |date= 6 June 2001 |access-date= 19 August 2016 |quote= But I can't say very much about chickens because I'm a vegetarian and I stay milchik all the time. |archive-date= 21 April 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160421001845/http://www.rabbisacks.org/faith-lectures-the-messianic-idea-today/ |url-status= live }}</ref>
==Death== Sacks died in London on 7 November 2020, at the age of 72.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jonathan Sacks, the U.K.'s Inclusive Former Chief Rabbi, Dies at 72|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/09/world/europe/jonathan-sacks-dead.html|work=The New York Times|last=Goldman|first=Ari|date=9 November 2020|access-date=10 November 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Rabbi Lord Sacks has died, online statement confirms|first=Gabriella|last=Swerling|newspaper=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/07/rabbi-lord-sacks-has-died-online-statement-confirms/|access-date=7 November 2020|date=7 November 2020|archive-date=7 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107183233/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/07/rabbi-lord-sacks-has-died-online-statement-confirms/|url-status=live}} {{subscription required}}</ref> He had been diagnosed with cancer a month earlier, having been twice previously treated for the disease.<ref>{{cite news|title=Rabbi Lord Sacks dies of cancer at 72|newspaper=[[Jewish Chronicle]]|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/rabbi-lord-sacks-dies-of-cancer-at-72-1.508371|access-date=7 November 2020|date=7 November 2020|archive-date=7 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201107181603/https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/rabbi-lord-sacks-dies-of-cancer-at-72-1.508371|url-status=live}}</ref>
Prime Minister [[Boris Johnson]] said that Sacks' leadership had a "profound impact on our whole country and across the world".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/warmest-human-spirit-uks-chief-rabbi-sacks-dies-74088969|title="Warmest human spirit": UK's former chief rabbi Sacks dies|access-date=8 November 2020|website=ABC News|archive-date=8 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108150552/https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/warmest-human-spirit-uks-chief-rabbi-sacks-dies-74088969|url-status=live}}</ref> Rabbi [[Meir Soloveichik]] wrote a tribute piece in the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' entitled "What Gentiles can Learn from Lord Sacks".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Soloveichik|first=Meir|date=12 November 2020|title=What Gentiles Can Learn From Lord Sacks|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-gentiles-can-learn-from-lord-sacks-11605221911|access-date=22 November 2020}}</ref> Awarding the [[2021 Genesis Prize]] Lifetime Achievement Award to Rabbi Sacks posthumously in late 2021, Israeli President [[Isaac Herzog]] paid tribute to him and praised him as "a master articulator of the Jewish foundation of universal values" who "unapologetically verbalized a proud, dignified Jewish identity."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-11-22 |title=President Herzog honours Rabbi Sacks with Genesis Lifetime Achievement Award {{!}} Rabbi Sacks |url=https://www.rabbisacks.org/news/president-herzog-honours-rabbi-sacks-with-genesis-lifetime-achievement-award/ |access-date=2022-08-18 |language=en}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book |editor-last1= Brown|editor-first1= Erica |editor-last2= Weiss|editor-first2= Shira |date= 2023|title= An ode to joy : Judaism and happiness in the thought of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and beyond|location= Cham, Switzerland|publisher= Palgrave Macmillan, an imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland|isbn=9783031282287}} *{{cite book |last= Goodman|first= Daniel Ross|date= 2023|title= Soloveitchik's children : Irving Greenberg, David Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the future of Jewish theology in America|location= Tuscaloosa |publisher= The University of Alabama Press|isbn= 9780817321666}} *{{cite book |last= Goshen-Gottstein|first= Alon |date= 2023|title= Covenant and world religions : Irving Greenberg, Jonathan Sacks, and the quest for Orthodox pluralism |location= London |publisher= The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization |isbn= 9781800348509}} *{{cite book |editor-last1= Harris|editor-first1= Michael J. |editor-last2= Rynhold|editor-first2= Daniel |editor-last3= Wright|editor-first3= Tamra |date= 2012|title= Radical responsibility : celebrating the thought of Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks|url= |location= London |publisher= London School of Jewish Studies |isbn= 9781592643660}} *{{cite book |last= Persoff|first= Meir |date= 2010|title= Another way, another time : religious inclusivism and the Sacks Chief Rabbinate |location= Boston |publisher= Academic Studies Press|isbn= 9781934843901}} *{{cite book |editor-last1= Tirosh-Samuelson|editor-first1= Hava |editor-last2= Hughes|editor-first2= Aaron W.|date= 2013|title= Jonathan Sacks : universalizing particularity |location= Boston |publisher= Brill|isbn= 9789004249806}}
==External links== {{wikiquote}} {{Commons category|Jonathan Sacks}} *{{Official}} {{UK Peer links | parliament = lords/lord-sacks/3901 | hansardcurr = 5468 | publicwhip = Sacks | theywork = lord_sacks | record = | bbc = 74923.stm | journalisted = jonathan-sacks}} {{s-start}} {{s-rel|jw}} {{succession box | before = [[Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits|Immanuel Jakobovits, Lord Jakobovits]] | title = [[Chief Rabbi]] of Great Britain and the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] | years = 1991–2013 | after = [[Ephraim Mirvis]]}} {{s-end}} {{Templeton Prize Laureates}} {{United Synagogue}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sacks, Jonathan}} [[Category:1948 births]] [[Category:2020 deaths]] [[Category:Academics of King's College London]] [[Category:Academics of Middlesex University]] [[Category:Academics of Newcastle University]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Essex]] [[Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Alumni of King's College London]] [[Category:Alumni of the London School of Jewish Studies]] [[Category:Alumni of New College, Oxford]] [[Category:British Jewish theologians]] [[Category:Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs]] [[Category:Chief rabbis of the United Kingdom]] [[Category:Crossbench life peers]] [[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]] [[Category:English non-fiction writers]] [[Category:English Orthodox rabbis]] [[Category:English Ashkenazi Jews]] [[Category:Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Fellows of King's College London]] [[Category:Holders of a Lambeth degree]] [[Category:Jewish British politicians]] [[Category:Jewish ethicists]] [[Category:20th-century English rabbis]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Modern Orthodox rabbis]] [[Category:Ordained peers]] [[Category:People educated at Christ's College, Finchley]] [[Category:Rabbis from London]] [[Category:Templeton Prize laureates]] [[Category:Writers from the London Borough of Lambeth]] [[Category:Peers recommended by the House of Lords Appointments Commission]] [[Category:21st-century English rabbis]] [[Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II]] [[Category:20th-century Irish rabbis]] [[Category:21st-century Irish rabbis]] [[Category:People from Lambeth]] [[Category:Jewish philosophers]] [[Category:People in interfaith dialogue]]