LONDON — Britain’s emeritus chief rabbi, Lord Immanuel Jakobovits, died unexpectedly early Sunday morning at his London home after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 78.
He had attended Shabbat services as usual the previous day.
Jakobovits served as chief rabbi of Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the British Commonwealth from 1967 to 1991, when he was replaced by the current chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks.
Jakobovits was the first chief rabbi to be knighted and the first to be elevated to the House of Lords.
Sacks called him “the outstanding rabbinic figure of his generation.”
Rabbi Michael Melchior, the Israeli minister for social and diaspora affairs, said that “the Jewish nation has lost an outstanding leader and a close friend,” who bravely expressed his concern for the unity of the Jewish people and their “cohesion.”
Rabbi Pinchas Lipner, dean of the Hebrew Academy of San Francisco, called Jakobovits “the most eloquent spokesperson for the Jewish people bar none.”
He was the “father of modern Jewish medical ethics,” said Lipner, a friend of the late rabbi for almost three decades. “He was a combination of enormous intellect, class and generosity,” he added.
Jakobovits came repeatedly to the Bay Area to address the annual Conference on Jewish Medical Ethics, run by the Institute on Jewish Medical Ethics of the Hebrew Academy. Lipner is also the dean of the institute.
Jakobovits possessed considerable political foresight and was at the center of controversy in Israel during the 1980s when, at the height of the settlers’ movement, he declared that peace is more important than territory and that it would be necessary to make compromises.
Lipner noted that Jakobovits was at the forefront of many movements, regardless of prevailing sentiments.
“His position on the peace process was not very popular,” Lipner recalled. “Most people had a wait-and-see attitude or expressed hostility toward the accords, but Rabbi Jakobovits was one of the first people to really be an advocate for the peace plan.”
Underlying all of Jakobovits’ teachings was his belief in the Torah as the guiding light of Jewish life.
“Rabbi Jakobovits believed that the Jewish people had no alternative but to study the Torah and to teach it to their children,” Lipner said.
As Sir Immanuel and later Lord Jakobovits, he was regarded as “father confessor” to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and was widely perceived as the spiritual leader of Thatcherite Britain.
Prime Minister Tony Blair paid tribute to him as “a man deeply respected and widely admired throughout the whole of this country for his faith, his ability and his courage. He will be sorely missed.”
Opposition Conservative leader William Hague said he was “profoundly sad to hear of his death. He will be long remembered as both leader and teacher, unwavering in his commitment to moral responsibility, to education and to tradition.”
Jakobovits was born in 1921, in Konigsberg, East Prussia. He moved to Berlin with his family, but fled to Britain after the rise of Hitler and was joined by his family two years later.
After attending a Jewish school, he went on to London University and the Jews’ College and began work as a rabbi in London’s Brondesbury Synagogue.
In 1949, at 27, he was appointed chief rabbi of Ireland and in 1958 moved to New York, where he was the founding rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue.
He returned to Britain in 1967 to take up the post of chief rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, a position he held until 1991.
At the time of his retirement, he was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize — widely regarded as the “Nobel prize for religion” — in recognition of his writings and teachings on a number of controversial subjects.
These included defending school prayer in the 1960s, railing against the schism between secular and Orthodox Jews in Israel and introducing Hebrew ethics into medical practices.
His publications include “The Timely and the Timeless,” “Jewish Medical Ethics,” “Journal of a Rabbi,” “If Only My People: Zionism in My Life,” “Harav Halord” and “Dear Chief Rabbi.” He also edited the centenary edition of the “Authorized Daily Prayer Book” in 1990.
A pre-funeral service took place at London’s Hendon Synagogue Sunday afternoon. He was buried this week at Mount of Olives Cemetery in Jerusalem.
Jakobovits is survived by his wife, Lady Amelie Jakobovits, six children, and 30 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.