Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits

Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits (8 February 1921 – 31 October 1999) was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991. Prior to this, he had served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland and as rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York City. In addition to his official duties he was regarded as an authority in medical ethics from a Jewish standpoint. He was knighted in 1981 and became the first Chief Rabbi to enter the House of Lords in 1988 as Baron Jakobovits.

Biography

Jakobovits was born in

He married Amélie Munk of Paris, the daughter of a prominent rabbi, who would support his community work throughout his life.^[2] The couple had six children. Lady Jakobovits died in May 2010, and was buried alongside her husband, on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.

His first position was as rabbi of the

He was knighted on 22 July 1981^[3] and was created a life peer on 5 February 1988, as Baron Jakobovits, of Regent's Park in Greater London,^[4] becoming the first rabbi to receive this honour. In 1987 he was given a Lambeth DD by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the first Jew to receive such a degree. 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. Jakobovits aroused considerable controversy^[5] when, after the discovery of a possible genetic explanation for homosexuality, he suggested that he saw no "moral objection for using genetic engineering to limit this particular trend".^[6] While he did not advocate abortion, he did describe homosexuality as "a grave departure from the natural norm which we are charged to overcome like any other affliction"; if there were genetic explanations for homosexuality, "the errant gene" should be "removed or repaired" to prevent the "disability".^[5] In a speech in the House of Lords, Jakovites made a speech saying that homophobia was an invented term that aimed to "uproot existing moral order."^[7]

Jakobovits died of a

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.

Jakobovits was the most prominent figure in 20th century Jewish

Jakobovits' 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 Thatcher's policies, Jakobovits responded by attacking its underlying philosophy.^[2] Jakobovits argued that work rather than welfare should be the over-riding aim of government policy: "Cheap labour is better than a free dole".^[9] More controversially, he 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".^[9] Jakobovits also took a conservative view on trade unions, criticised Faith in the City 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".^[9]

Within Judaism, Jakobovits held mildly Zionist 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, as he mentioned these views publicly.^[10]

Works

• Jewish Medical Ethics (1959/1975)
• Jewish Law Faces Modern Problems (1965)
• Journal of a Rabbi (1966)
• The Timely and The Timeless: Jews, Judaism and Society in a Storm-tossed Decade (1977)
• If Only My People: Zionism in My Life (1984)
• Dear Chief Rabbi: From the Correspondence of Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits on Matters of Jewish Law, Ethics and Contemporary Issues, 1980–1990 (1995)
• Lord Jakobovits in Conversation (2000)

See also

• History of the Jews in Ireland

Notes

References

• ISBN 0-297-81142-8
  .
• Jakobovits, Immanuel. Jewish medical ethics : a comparative and historical study of the Jewish religious attitude to medicine and its practice. New York : Bloch Pub. Co., 1959 and 1962.
• __________. Dear Chief Rabbi: from the correspondence of Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits on matters of Jewish law, ethics, and contemporary issues, 1980–1990. Hoboken, N.J. : KTAV Pub. House, 1995. This volume of rabbinic responsa was edited by Jeffrey M. Cohen.
• Jakobovits, Immanuel. Journal of a Rabbi. NY: Living Books, 1966.
• Young, Hugo (1991). One of us: a biography of Margaret Thatcher. Macmillan.
  ISBN 0-333-56585-1
  .

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits.

• Portraits of Immanuel Jakobovits, Baron Jakobovits at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Obituary, The Guardian, 1 Nov 1999

Jewish titles
Preceded by Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog	Chief Rabbi of Ireland 1949–1958	Succeeded by Isaac Cohen
Preceded by Sir Israel Brodie	Chief Rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth 1966–1991	Succeeded by Jonathan, Lord Sacks