Jonathan Sacks

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020) was a philosopher, theologian, and author and the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. After his retirement he was Chief Rabbi Emeritus and served as the Ingeborg and Ira Rennert Global Distinguished Professor of Judaic Thought at New York University and the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He was also appointed as Professor of Law, Ethics, and the Bible at King’s College, London. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2005 and made a life peer in the House of Lords in October 2009. In 2016, he was awarded the prestigious Templeton prize for “bringing spiritual insight to the public conversation through mass media, popular lectures and more than two dozen books,” and for his “appreciation and respect” for people of all faiths. Rabbi Sacks died of pancreatic cancer on November 7, 2020.