Jonathan Sacks (March 8, 1948–Nov. 7, 2020) was born in London, England, to Polish textile seller Louis David Sacks and his English wife Louisa Frumkin, who came from a family of wine merchants. Sacks was educated at St Mary’s Primary School; Christ’s College, Finchley, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. While a college student, he traveled to New York where he met with Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, later writing, “Rabbi Solveitchik had challenged me to think, Rabbi Schneerson had challenged me to lead.”
Sacks went on to do post graduate work at New College, Oxford and King’s College, London. He received his rabbinic ordination from the London School of Jewish studies and London’s Etz Chaim Yeshiva. The University of London conferred a PhD on him in 1988. He served as a rabbi at Golders Green synagogue in London from 1978 to 1982. From 1983 to 1990 he served as rabbi of the Western Marble Arch Synagogue in Central London, while beginning in 1984 simultaneously serving as principal of Jews’ College, the United Synagogue’s rabbinical seminary.
From Sept 1991 through September 2013, he served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth. In 1995, he won the Jerusalem Prize for his contribution to diaspora Jewish life. In 2005 he was dubbed a Knight Bachelor for his work in interfaith relations. In 2009, the House of Lords announced that Sacks was recommended for life peerage with a seat in the House of Lords. He took the title of Baron Sacks. He was also the recipient of an honorary doctorate of divinity conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey, to mark his first ten years as Chief Rabbi.
Lord Sacks was the author of 25 books on various aspects of Judaism. He was a four time winner of the American National Book Award with A Letter in the Scroll in 2000; Covenant & Conversation: Genesis in 2009; The Koren Sacks Pesah Mahzor in 2014, and Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence in 2005.
His tenure as Chief Rabbi was marked by 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.” Over his career, he served as a Judaic professor at New York University, Yeshiva University, King’s College, University of Essex, University of Manchester, Newcastle University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and guest lectured at other institutions of higher learning.
Sacks and Elaine Taylor married in 1970 and they had three children: Joshua, Dina, and Gila. In 2021, he was posthumously awarded the Genesis Prize Lifetime Achievement Award by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.
Tomorrow, March 9: Walter Kohn
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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article