In his native Britain, Jonathan Sacks has reached the rabbinical pinnacle.
The chief rabbi of Great Britain is a well-known figure in his native country and the nations of the Commonwealth, including Australia, Canada, Gibraltar and New Zealand.
Yet ironically, the Orthodox rabbi’s work on radio, television and his column with the Times of London has made him extremely popular among the nation’s non-Jews. His harshest critics, it seems, come from within.
“The hardest part of my job is trying to persuade Jews to admire Judaism as much as non-Jews do,” said Sacks in an interview before he addressed the International Conference on Jewish Medical Ethics in Burlingame. “I tend to find that negativity comes from within my own community. We’ve become blasé with what is, in fact, a very rare and special heritage.”
Since his ascension to chief rabbi in 1991, Sacks (a prolific author who holds a doctorate in philosophy from Cambridge) has walked a tightrope in attempting to placate the oft-hostile relationship between Britain’s Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. Of the nation’s 280,000 affiliated Jews, roughly 72 percent belong to Orthodox congregations, according to Sacks.
The Orthodox/non-Orthodox relationship reached its nadir in 1997, when a private letter, in which Sacks called the Reform and Conservative movements “a false grouping” of Jews “who destroy the faith,” was leaked to the press.
Since that time, Sacks says, things have been on the upswing.
“We worked very hard behind the scenes, quietly, to rebuild broken bridges and to mend fractured relationships,” the chief rabbi said. “I think we’ve succeeded.”
Within the past decade, he said, more Jewish day schools have been built in Britain than at any other point in Anglo-Jewish history, adult education attendance is at record levels and, after 50 consecutive years of decline, the number of synagogue marriages jumped 10 percent last year.
Although they make up just a small fraction of Britain’s population, Sacks believes Jews have much to offer the nation and, for that matter, the world.
“I call Judaism a distinctive voice in the conversation of mankind,” said the rabbi. “People look to us for guidance on how to maintain families when marriage seems to be breaking down as an institution. They admire our ability to construct strong communities when community is the buzzword of politics in Britain and America.”
Non-Jews, he added, “are struck by and fascinated by Jewish commitment to charity and social action. They’re deeply impressed by our passion for education and the life of the mind.”
Jews have much to be proud of, said the rabbi, who was born in the same year as the Jewish state. “I think we ought to walk tall as Jews. And the way I put it is that by being what only we can be, what only we are, we give society what only we can give.”
Within the world’s Jewish communities, Sacks believes willpower and faith are the keys to passing the tests of the new century.
“The problems of the 20th century were almost all practical. The problems of the 21st century will be very spiritual,” said the rabbi. “Does Israeli Jewry have a strong enough connection to the land, to Jewish history and to sheer faith to survive what seems likely to be a long war of attrition? Does diaspora Jewry have a sufficient sense of the power and uniqueness of our spiritual heritage?”
The rabbi also stressed the continuing need for patience.
“I think, for instance, in Israel, the Palestinians are gambling that many Israelis simply won’t have the patience to endure an intensification of terror with no end in sight. But I can’t think of any people in history who have shown more patience. After all, we waited 2,000 years to return to our land and more than 2,000 for the Messiah,” he said.
“Patience is a great spiritual gift, it has saved the Jewish people. But do the Israelis still have it? Do we still have it?”