Jakobovits , Immanuel , Baron Jakobovits , 1921-1999 , chief rabbi

Jakobovits , Immanuel , Baron Jakobovits , 1921-1999 , chief rabbi

Immanuel Jakobovits was born in 1921 in Konigsberg (later Kaliningrad) in eastern Prussia. He moved to Berlin in 1928, when his father Julius Jakobovits was appointed Dayan to the Jewish community there. In the 1930s the family left Nazi Germany for Britain. Immanuel Jakobovits attended a Jewish school in Stamford Hill and then Jews' College and the Etz Chaim Yeshiva in London with a view to becoming a rabbi. In 1940 he and his father were interned briefly on the Isle of Man as they were classed as "enemy aliens". After his release Immanuel Jakobovits was appointed successively Rabbi of the Brondesbury Synagogue, the South East London Synagogue and finally the Great Synagogue. At the age of 27 he was appointed Chief Rabbi of Ireland. In 1958 he was appointed Rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York and in 1967 he succeeded Israel Brodie as Chief Rabbi in Britain.

Jakobovits greatly extended the prestige and authority of the office. He was the first Chief Rabbi to sit in the House of Lords and during his term of office was perceived as the principal representative figure of the Jewish community.

He was the founder and first President of the Jewish Education Development Trust which sought to extend the provision of Jewish education by promoting school building projects; by improving the quality and extent of teacher training; by providing better teaching aids and text books; and by increasing the hours of Jewish study. In his twenty four years in office the percentage of children attending Jewish day schools increased from 16% to 30%. Close contact was maintained with Jews' College and a bi-annual journal, L'Eylah, was initiated jointly by the Office of the Chief Rabbi and the College.

Lord Jakobovits served as an active President of the Conference of European Rabbis. He was also much concerned with the problems experienced by Jews in the former Soviet Union and campaigned in their cause. In 1975 he became the first Western Chief Rabbi to visit the Soviet Union in an official capacity and preached in the Moscow Synagogue.

Jakobovits' other outstanding achievement lay in the field of Jewish medical ethics. It was the subject of his Ph.D. thesis in the 1950s and he wrote what was to become a classic text in the field, "Jewish Medical Ethics". He was consulted by agencies and individuals outside the Jewish community on the subject and continued to lecture and write throughout his Chief Rabbinate. In 1985 the Sir Immanuel Jakobovits Center for Jewish Medical Ethics was opened at the Ben Gurion University in Israel.

While in office Jakobovits was knighted and in 1988 made a peer (he was gazetted as Lord Jakobovits of Regent's Park). He was on friendly terms with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who seemed to have a better relationship with him than with some leaders of the churches. In 1985 the Church of England published "Faith in the Cities", a report critical of government policies for inner-city decline and the despair of deprived citizens living in areas of urban decay. The Chief Rabbi responded by writing his own paper "From Doom to Hope". He acknowledged the role of governments in regenerating cities but, citing the history of Anglo-Jewry as an example, emphasised the importance of self-help, hard work and individual self-reliance. "From Doom to Hope" was criticised by many, including some Jews, but had praise from others: a hundred and sixty Conservative MPs signed a motion approving his sentiments.

The Chief Rabbi developed the practice of his predecessors to engage in full dialogue with Christian churches and was a Joint President of the Council for Christians and Jews. In 1987 he received a Lambeth Degree as Doctor of Divinity from the Archbishop of Canterbury - the first Jew to do so. Theological differences notwithstanding he communicated with Reform and Liberal Jewish organisations and individuals and was ready to work with them in practical matters of communal concern.

Lord Jakobovits retired from office in August 1991. He died on 31st of October 1999.