Israel’s president has paid tribute to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks as an “inspiration” to him personally and to Jews around the world in a speech marking the former Chief Rabbi’s first yahrzeit.
Isaac Herzog said: “Few figures in our history have shaped our global Jewish conversation as much as Lord Sacks.”
Exotolling Lord Sacks for his “call for ‘a Judaism engaged with the world’”, “appeal to respect the ‘dignity of difference’” and “cry to ‘heal a fractured world’”, President Herzog said: “All these have inspired me personally and so many Jews all around the world.”
He continued: “Rabbi Sacks was giant of a man. A rabbi whose prose read like poetry. Whose words, in his magically soft and wise voice, touched our hearts, our souls, and our minds.
“Whose humility, whose kindness, whose brilliance of mind enriched the Jewish world and indeed the entire world.
“His untimely passing one year ago has left an enormous void in our collective Jewish life.”
Mr Herzog said he was “moved” that Jews around the world are honouring the memory of Lord Sacks by taking part in the Communities In Conversation initiative, which involves more than 100 Jewish educational and community organisations learning from his teachings.
Mr Herzog concluded: “I sorely miss Rabbi Sacks very much, and I am comforted by the outpouring of love for him one year after his tragic passing away, as well as his enormous writings, his enormous legacy, and his wonderful ideas. May his memory be an eternal blessing for all of us and for humanity at large.”
Lord Sacks died on 20 Cheshvan 5781, or 7 November 2020, aged 72. He had served as Chief Rabbi from 1991 to 2013, and was elevated to the peerage in 2009.
