NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Immanuel Jakobovits

Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits, KBE (8 February 1921–31 October 1999) was the Orthodox Judaism Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991. His successor is the present Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks. Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... October 31 is the 304th day of the year (305th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 61 days remaining. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts (The Oral Law). Various Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim expounded upon these same Talmudic texts. ... // Chief rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognised religious leader of that countrys Jewish community. ... The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, almost all of which are former colonies of the United Kingdom. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Sir Jonathan Henry Sacks (born 1948, London) is the Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogue, the United Kingdoms main body of Orthodox synagogues. ...

Biography

Jakobovits was born in Königsberg, East Prussia (now Kaliningrad), where his father Julius was a community rabbi. The family moved to Berlin in the 1920s, where his father became rabbinical judge on a local beth din, but fled the country in time to escape Nazi persecutions. In the United Kingdom he completed his higher education, including a period at the Yeshiva Etz Chaim in London, Jews' College and London University. Former German name of the city of Kaliningrad. ... East Prussia (German: Ostpreu en; Polish: Prusy Wschodnie; Russian: Восточная Пруссия — Vostochnaya Prussiya) was a province of Kingdom of Prussia, situated on the territory of former Ducal Prussia. ... Government Russia District Subdivision Russia Northwestern Federal District Kaliningrad Oblast Mayor Yuri Savenko (2005) Geographical characteristics Area - City 215. ... Berlin is the capital city and a state of Germany. ... A beth din (×‘×™×ª ×“×™×Ÿ, Hebrew: house of judgment, plural battei din) is a rabbinical court of Judaism. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Yeshiva or yeshivah (Hebrew: ×™×©×™×‘×” pl. ... London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... Jews College, since about 2000 known as the London School of Jewish Studies, was founded in London as a rabbinical seminary in 1852 with the support of the then Chief Rabbi Nathan Adler and of Sir Moses Montefiore. ... Senate House, designed by Charles Holden home to the universitys central administration offices and its library The University of London, founded in 1836, is a federation of colleges which together constitute one of the worlds largest universities. ...

He married Amélie Munk of Paris, the daughter of a prominent rabbi, who would support his community work throughout his life. They had six children. Part of the Paris skyline with from left to right: Montparnasse Tower, Eiffel Tower, and in the background, towers of neighboring La DÃ©fense. ...

His first position was as rabbi of the Brondesbury synagogue. In 1949, at the relatively young age of 27, he was appointed Chief Rabbi of the declining Jewish community of Ireland. This was to be a stepping stone towards a greater rabbinical career, and in 1958 he assumed the rabbinate of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York, a position he held until 1966, when he was called to the Chief Rabbinate of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth. He held this position until his retirement in 1991. Brondesbury is a place in the London Borough of Brent. ... Lesko synagogue, Poland A synagogue (Hebrew: ×‘×™×ª ×›× ×¡×ª ; beit knesset, house of assembly; Yiddish: ×©×•×œ, shul) is a Jewish place of religious worship. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area Ranked 27th - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 kmÂ²) - Width 285 miles (455 km) - Length 330 miles (530 km) - % water 13. ...

He was knighted in 1981 and was created a life peer in 1988, as Baron Jakobovits, of Regent's Park in Greater London, becoming the first rabbi to receive this honour. In 1991 he received the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. In the House of Lords he became known as a campaigner for traditional morality. Lord Jakobovits aroused considerable controversy when, after the discovery of a possible genetic explanation for homosexuality, he called for the eradication of this genetic variation. The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ... In the United Kingdom, Life Peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles may not be inherited (those whose titles are inheritable are known as hereditary peers). ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries about Spiritual Realities was until 2001 awarded for Progress in Religion. ... This article is about the British House of Lords. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual and romantic attraction between two individuals of the same sex. ...

Lord Jakobovits died of a cerebral haemorrhage, and was buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. A cerebral hemorrhage is a condition in the brain in which a blood vessel leaks. ... This entry incorporates text from the public domain Eastons Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897. ... Jerusalem (Hebrew: , YerushalÃ¡yim or Yerushalaim; Arabic: , al-Quds (the Holy); official Arabic in Israel: Ø£ÙˆØ±Ø´Ù„ÙŠÙ… Ø§Ù„Ù‚Ø¯Ø³, Urshalim-al-Quds (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names) is the capital and largest city[1] of the State of Israel with a population of 724,000 (as of May 24, 2006[2...

Other functions

Rabbi Jakobovits was also the president of the Conference of European Rabbis, in this capacity he worked on standardising and regulating religious conversion to Judaism. Ger tzedek (Hebrew: righteous proselyte or proselyte [of] righteousness) or Ger (stranger or proselyte) is a gentile (i. ... Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people. ...

Ideas and philosophy

Jakobovits was a firm adherent of the "German-Jewish" Torah im Derech Eretz philosophy, having a broad knowledge of religious subjects as well as secular culture and philosophy. This made him a unique spokesperson for Orthodox Judaism, as he was able to transmit ideas to a wide audience which would otherwise not have achieved dissemination. His specialty was the interaction between medical ethics and halakha. Thanks to his training in Ireland, Rabbi Jakobovits approached his comprehensive Jewish Medical Ethics in light of Catholic medical ethics, with which he often compares Jewish ethics. Torah im Derech Eretz (Hebrew ×ª×•×¨×” ×¢× ×“×¨×š ××¨×¥ - Torah with the way of the land) is a philosophy of Orthodox Judaism articulated by Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), which formalizes a relationship between traditionally observant Judaism and the modern world. ... Orthodox Judaism is the formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts (The Oral Law). Various Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim expounded upon these same Talmudic texts. ... Medical ethics is the discipline of evaluating the merits, risks, and social concerns of activities in the field of medicine. ... Halakha (Hebrew: ×”×œ×›×”; also transliterated as Halakhah, Halacha, Halakhot and Halachah) is the collective corpus of Jewish religious law, including biblical law (the 613 mitzvot) and later talmudic and rabbinic law as well as customs and traditions. ...

His political stance was conservative, and he was particularly close to Margaret Thatcher. When a Church of England report titled Faith in the City was published in December 1985 criticising Mrs. Thatcher's policies, Jakobovits responded by attacking its underlying philosophy. Jakobovits argued that work rather than welfare should by the overriding aim of government policy: "Cheap labour is better than a free dole".^[1] More controversially, Jakobovits contended that inner-city black people should learn from Jewish experiences in America. There, he argued, Jews had worked themselves out of poverty, educated themselves, integrated into the host culture and nurtured a "trust in and respect for the police, realising that our security as a minority depended on law and order being maintained".^[2] Jakobovits also criticised the report for not mentioning the role of trade unions, arguing that "The selfishness of workers in attempting to secure better conditions at the cost of rising unemployment and immense public misery can be just as morally indefensible as the rapaciousness of the wealthy in exploiting the working class".^[3] Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC, FRS (born 13 October 1925) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. ... The Church of England is the officially established Christian church[1] in England, and acts as the mother and senior branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, as well as a founding member of the Porvoo Communion. ... Faith in the City was a report published in the UK in Autumn 1985, authored by the Archbishop of Canterburyâ€™s Commission on Urban Priority Areas. ...

Within Judaism, he held mildly Zionistic views. He maintained that sooner or later Israel would need to negotiate the territory it conquered during the Six Day War, which made him a controversial figure when he would mention these views publicly. Poster promoting a film about Jewish settlement in Palestine, 1930s: Toward a New Life (in Romanian),The Promised Land (in Hungarian), the small caption (bottom) reads First Palestinian film with sound Zionism is a political movement that supports a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel, where... The 1967 Arab-Israeli War, also known as the Six-Day War or June War, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. ...

Notes

References

Note: This is based on an entry from the 1906 public domain Jewish Encyclopedia The responsa literature, known in Hebrew as Sheelot U-teshuvot (questions and answers), is the body of written decisions and rulings given by rabbis to questions addressed to them. ...

Contents

Biography

Other functions

Ideas and philosophy

Notes

References

See also

External links