Hertz , Joseph Herman , 1872-1946 , Chief Rabbi

Joseph Hermann Hertz was born in Slovakia in 1872. In 1844 he moved to the United States where he was educated and was one of the first graduates of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Between 1894 and 1896 he was Rabbi of the Congregation Adath Jeshurun at Syracuse, New York. In the late 1890s he moved to South Africa to work as a rabbi in Johannesburg and later served as Professor of Philosophy at Transvaal University College. Joseph Hertz was expelled from the country during the Boer War after he denounced Boer conduct towards the Uitlanders and also called for political emancipation of Jews. From 1911 to 1913 he again worked in New York, this time as Rabbi of the Orah Hayyim Congregation. In 1913 he was elected Chief Rabbi in Britian.

The Jewish Chronicle on the occasion of Hertz's death in 1946, described the Chief Rabbi as "Jewry's Fighter-Scholar": two world wars, the rise of fascism in Europe, the holocaust and the growth of Zionist activity dominated his period of office. Hertz was a fervent and vocal Zionist at a time when many Jewish leaders were not, often coming into conflict with other Anglo-Jewish leaders. In 1917 he wrote to the Times to protest against the attempts of the Presidents of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association to "strangle the Balfour Declaration before its birth". In 1945 Hertz declared, in a telegram to ministers that the 6 October (a Jewish Sabbath) was to be a day of solidarity with the remaining European Jews and stated that British Jews looked to the British Government to provide Jews with a haven of refuge (Palestine). The Honorary Officers of the United Synagogue were opposed to what they regarded as the introduction of politics into a religious service and wrote to all United Syngogue ministers to warn them against the Chief Rabbi's words. The sharp dispute within the community was unresolved at the time of the Chief Rabbi's death a few months later. The episode typified his periodically fraught relationship with prominent communal leaders, in particular with Sir Robert Waley Cohen (President of the United Syngogue for much of his term of office). The historian Cecil Roth remarked "Hertz was greatly in favour of a peaceful solution to disputes, but only after he had exhausted every other possibility first".

Chief Rabbi Hertz was opposed to the Liberal Jewish movement in Britian and roundly rebuked its adherents. In 1927 he published Affirmations of Judaism, a volume of sermons including severe criticisms of the movement. In 1934 Hertz attended the opening ceremony of the Reform Syngogue's new communal hall and later lectured there. He was a notable Jewish scholar whose publications included his widely used annotated edition of the Pentateuch and his book of Jewish Thoughts.

Joseph Hertz championed the oppressed Jews in Russia, eastern Europe and Nazi Germany; in 1913 he denounced the Russian government at the International Congress for the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic. Later in his term of office he organised support for German refugees in the form of the Chief Rabbi's Religious Emergency Council and encouraged rescue operations.

In 1920-21 Joseph Hertz carried out the first pastoral tour of Jewish communities in the British Empire. Following his Dominions tour in 1921-22 the designation "Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Empire" was drawn up as part of the attempt to provide a central focus for Jews in the British Empire.

Joseph Hertz died on 14 January 1946.