Jonathan Sacks

Jonathan Sacks (born March 8, 1948, London, England—died November 7, 2020, London) was an English rabbi, educator, and author who served as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth (1991–2013).

Sacks was born into a family of Jewish merchants. He received his early education at Saint Mary’s Primary School and Christ’s College, both in the Finchley area of North London. He studied (1966–69) at Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge and took a first-class degree in philosophy. In 1969–70 he held a Rhonda Research Fellowship at Gonville & Caius, where he conducted research in moral philosophy under Sir Bernard Williams, and in 1970–71 he did research in moral philosophy under Philippa Foot at New College at the University of Oxford. He received an M.A. (1972) from Oxford and was awarded a Ph.D. (1981) from King’s College London, a constituent college of the University of London.

Sacks received his religious education at Yeshivat Tomhei Temimim in Kfar Habad, Israel, and Jews’ College, London (later London School of Jewish Studies). He was ordained in 1976 and held rabbinic appointments at Golders Green Synagogue (1978–82) and Western Marble Arch Synagogue (1983–90), both in London.

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Sacks began his academic career at Middlesex Polytechnic (later Middlesex University), London (1971–73), and Jews’ College (1973–90), where he also served (1984–90) as principal. He held lectureships and visiting professorships at the University of London, the University of Manchester, the University of Essex, Newcastle University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and others.

Upon his appointment as chief rabbi in 1991, Sacks called for a “decade of renewal” of British Jewry, whom he feared were losing their sense of “Jewish identity, the Jewish family, above all [their] commitment to the Torah.…” In 2001 he began the second decade of his chief rabbinate with a call for a renewed commitment to an ethics of responsibility, a theme that he reprised in his 2005 book, To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility. As chief rabbi, Sacks worked to create organizations that would emphasize a Jewish approach to contemporary social issues. He addressed those themes often on radio, television, and in print media. In 2000 he was appointed associate president of the Conference of European Rabbis. After stepping down as chief rabbi in 2013, Sacks held appointments at New York University.

Sacks was the author of numerous books, including The Dignity of Difference (2002; 2004 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion), The Authorised Daily Prayer Book (2006), Covenant and Conversation: Genesis (2009; National Jewish Book Award), The Great Partnership: God, Science and the Search for Meaning (2011), and Not in God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence (2015).

In 2005 Sacks was knighted. Four years later he was made a life peer, becoming Baron Sacks of Aldgate in the City of London. In 2016 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for “bringing spiritual insight to the public conversation through mass media, popular lectures and more than two dozen books.”

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