A Decade of Jewish Renewal: Rabbi Sacks delivers his Installation Address as Chief Rabbi

Presenter: On Thames Television now, highlights of yesterday's induction service of the new Chief Rabbi. 

Rabbi Sacks: As I waited to go into the synagogue, as the service was just about to begin. I was very nearly overwhelmed by this feeling that such a great community and so many people were from this moment onwards going to turn to me for leadership. 

And I think I would have been overwhelmed had it not been for my feeling that God has been with me until now. I don't think He'll desert me now. 

Presenter: Last night at London's St. John's Wood Synagogue, Jonathan Sacks became the new Chief Rabbi, spiritual leader of the majority of Britain's Jews, a figurehead for the whole of Anglo-Jewry, and one of the most influential rabbis in the world. 

He was always favoured to succeed Lord Jakobovits, who's retiring at 70. He was elected by laymen from the United Synagogue branch of Anglo-Jewry that he belongs to. Rabbis from across Europe, politicians and senior Jewish laymen filled one of the largest Orthodox synagogues in London. 

For an academic man from Jews College, it's a major challenge.

Rabbi Sacks: For the last few years, I've sat here, in my study in the garden - thinking, researching, writing books, and trying to formulate what a Jewish response should be to this particular time. But there comes a time when you have to test that in real life. If you can't turn your theories into practice - with real people, with a real community, then the theories simply don't work.

So I really felt that the challenge of coming out of the study, into the public, and into the life of our synagogues, and our institutions, and our communities, was something I had to do. I had no choice. 

Presenter: The Chief Rabbi's induction was based on prayers from the Jewish afternoon service.

The previous five Chief Rabbis have usually come from Central or Eastern Europe, and they belong to well-established rabbinic families. 

Jonathan Sacks, though, is different. Born in Finsbury Park to an Orthodox family, he was sent to a Church of England school and won a double first in philosophy at Cambridge.

It was then that he became seriously involved with religion, inspired by a book by American Jewish thinkers. He travelled to America to find them. 

Rabbi Sacks: I came to all of these thinkers with a number of set questions - about the meaning of life and the Jewish identity, and they all were kind enough to answer those questions.

The Rebbe of Lubavitch was the only one who started asking me questions. Where are you? What are you doing? You're in Cambridge. What are you doing for Jewish life in Cambridge? If you've taken the trouble to come and search me out, why aren't you leading? 

And that, for me, was very powerful.

When I have to solve a problem, I have to analyse it. I have to be detached and rational and use the sources of Jewish teaching. That's a very rational process.

But when I pray to God, I'm not being detached and rational. God is somebody I talk to in the second person singular, what Martin Buber called “I and Thou.” And that is a very emotional experience, and that's where I feel that prayer is emotional or it isn't prayer.

Presenter: A special choir was selected from Orthodox synagogues across London, and two cantors were chosen to lead the prayers. The Reverend Simon Hass, the senior cantor in London, had survived a Russian prisoner of war camp because the guards were so taken with his voice. 

During the service, the new Chief Rabbi's father, Louis Sacks, was given the honour of opening the Ark of the Covenant containing the Holy Scrolls, the Five Books of Moses, whilst his son read prayers for the Royal Family and for Israel.

Rabbi Sacks: “He who gives salvation unto kings and dominion unto princes, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. May He bless our sovereign lady, Queen Elizabeth. Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince and Princess of Wales and all the Royal Family. And deal kindly and justly with all the House of Israel…”

Presenter: The Israeli question has haunted the outgoing Chief Rabbi, Lord Jakobovits. On more than one occasion, he's appeared to condemn the Israeli government for their treatment of the Palestinians.

So what will the new man say? 

Rabbi Sacks: I think Israel has lived up to almost every hope that Jews ever had about it. It has proved a wonderful democracy. It has made the desert bloom. It has been the place of ingathering of exiles. It has been the fulfilment of many of our hopes. There was one hope that hasn't been fulfilled, and that is that when Israel existed as a State, anti-Semitism would end.

And that hasn't yet happened, and Israel is not yet at peace. 

Presenter: You said you would be true to your conscience and speak out. Do you feel the need to be true to your conscience and speak out and condemn Israel for what it is doing to the Palestinians, no matter what you may say about the Palestinians' attitude to Israel? 

Rabbi Sacks: I'm very disturbed by the assumption that the only conscientious feelings a Jew outside Israel can have are to condemn Israel. I reject that absolutely. 

Israel is a country with very real problems. I don't minimise them, and I don't, as it were, wish them out of existence. But it's a country of enormous achievements. 

Presenter: So would you, if you felt deep down that it was necessary, criticise the Israeli government? 

You will? 

Rabbi Sacks: Nobody is ever above criticism, and that is what the prophets of Israel taught us. 

Presenter: Does it need criticism at the moment?

Rabbi Sacks: I think at the moment it needs... I think the peace process does need the goodwill of all sides, because I think just putting pressure on one side is the quickest way of sinking a peace process.

Presenter: Whilst his fervent Zionist stance will find favour with a great majority of Anglo-Jewry, he'll have a harder time winning Jews over to religious devotion. The twin threats of secularism and assimilation have devastated Anglo-Jewry. Chief Rabbi Sacks sees it as one of his major problems.

He's attacked the limitations of secularism from his philosopher's chair in the 1990 Reith Lectures, and now aims to fight it from the seat of the Chief Rabbi. 

Rabbi Sacks: I know what it is to experience a secular culture. From my childhood, I know it in my bones, and that to me has been a tremendous advantage, because it means that I know where the stresses and tensions are.

I know it's difficult to believe in the things Jews once believed in, and therefore I don't take any of this, any of the commands, any of our beliefs, as simple. They call on us to make an enormous effort of imagination and growth, and therefore having that secular background was to me a very, very important experience, without which I don't think I could be what I am. 

Presenter: So why are you relevant to the Jew watching this programme who's quite happy with his secular way of life? 

Rabbi Sacks: Until I was 19, I was quite happy with my secular way of life.

Of course, something very big happened to me, as it happened to every Jew at that time, which was the Six-Day War and the weeks leading up to it, and the feeling that Jews hadn't escaped from the Holocaust. It might, God forbid, be about to happen again. 

And at that moment, I suddenly discovered that if you're a Jew, you aren't just a private individual. You're a member of a people, who have an extraordinary history and an extraordinary contribution to the moral civilisation of the world. 

And in the end, what stops us being just secular individuals is some itch inside of us that says, you have a history, you have a faith, you have a destiny. 

Somehow, the more Jews who come together in a single act of prayer, the greater the emotional temperature, the deeper the intensity, and that, together with the beautiful music, the wonderful cantorial and choral music that accompanied the service, I felt very lifted by it.

Presenter: The choirmaster composed the music for one prayer, especially for Chief Rabbi Sacks, and it was sung by the Reverend Lionel Rosenfeld, the cantor at Dr Sacks' former synagogue. 

Whilst welcoming a new chapter in Anglo-Jewish history, the service also marked the end of the Chief Rabbinate of a man who has raised the profile and the respect of the office to greater heights than ever before. Immanuel Jakobovits, the first Chief Rabbi to be knighted whilst in office, the first Chief Rabbi to be made a peer of the realm, and the winner of the Templeton Prize, regarded as the Nobel Prize for progress in religion.

Lord Jakobovits: Kvod yedid nafshi, maranan verabanan, revered colleagues, distinguished community leaders, honoured guests, festive congregation, “Chazak, chazak v'nitchazek” - be strong, be strong, and let us be strong together. As I now address you, for the last time as my community, I want you to share these feelings with me. Together, we have gone through some of the most convulsive times in history, from which we have emerged, by the grace of God, as a stronger community than has ever lived in these shores.

I now turn, with deep affection, to my dear and revered successor. If you were to pose the question, how can I, as the newly installed Chief Rabbi, triumph over the lurking dangers, then the two words “Chazak V’Ematz” addressed to Joshua say it all. “Be strong and of good courage.”

Of course I'm leaving with mixed feelings because this was probably the most prestigious - as well as influential - rabbinical appointment in the world. It's certainly the oldest continuous Chief Rabbinate in the world, far older than that of Israel, which is only of this century, or of any European Chief Rabbinate. 

Presenter: What advice would you give him, in the early days, of how to cope with the new pressures he faces?

Lord Jakobovits: To be himself, to stand by his principles, not allow lay bodies or even colleagues to dictate his decisions. By all means consult. I'm a great believer in consultation and enjoying as wide an area of opinion into the decision-making process, but the buck stops here. 

Presenter: The final act of Lord Jakobovits's 24-year Chief Rabbinate was to install Jonathan Sacks as Chief Rabbi.

Having walked to the chair to the left of the Ark, he then led his successor to the Chief Rabbi's seat. This was the moment Jonathan Sacks, who was ordained by Lord Jakobovits, became the sixth Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. 

As Lady Jakobovits and Mrs Sacks looked on, the new Chief Rabbi delivered his induction address.

He called for unity, for whilst in the outside world Anglo-Jewry has never seemed stronger, internally it has seldom been more divided. 

Rabbi Sacks: I call on you, to join in me, to join with me in renewing our Ahavat Yisrael, our categorical commitment to the love of every Jew. We must reach out to every Jew with open arms and an open heart, because we have suffered enough from anti-Semitism, let us practise philo-Semitism. We have suffered enough from the assaults of others, let us never inflict assaults on ourselves. 

Presenter: Anglo-Jewry is split. Almost a quarter of the community belongs to the progressives, to the left of Chief Rabbi Sacks.

They reject the view that the Chief Rabbi is their spiritual leader. Some of the progressive leadership sat with senior Orthodox laymen in the service, but they remain in conflict because the Orthodox refuse to acknowledge progressive rabbis. 

Rabbi Sacks: I am totally open to any Jew. I am not totally open to any Judaism.

But at a human level, as members of the same people, really as members of the same family, I say that no Jew and nothing Jewish is alien to me. 

Presenter: Now it sounds most commendable and hopeful, but in the last few weeks you have pulled out of an education committee, apparently because there was a progressive rabbi on it. How do the two exist together, your fine words and the actions? 

Rabbi Sacks: These are the problems of bringing Jews together, are problems of a lifetime.

If you read the Bible, you see that there was always a Moses figure prepared to say, ‘This is Judaism and there is no compromise.’ And there was always an Aaron figure saying, ‘Let's hold together as a people.’ 

Somehow or other, at times you have to be firm and uncompromising on matters of principle. And at other times, you have to say, well, without compromise, let's come closer together. 

Presenter: One area they don't seem to be able to come closer together on is the role of women. Orthodoxy can't contemplate the idea of women rabbis, whilst in the Orthodox synagogues, the women have to sit upstairs.

Rabbi Sacks: The issue of women in Judaism seems to me a very important one, and one that I would very much like to advance. I have no doubt that a number of women in our community feel quite alienated from Judaism, and I would very much like to advance the position of women in Anglo-Jewry. Firstly by encouraging an enormous intensification of women's Jewish learning. 

Presenter: But you would envisage a situation where senior women Jewish lecturers would teach male students, that would be acceptable? 

Rabbi Sacks: I don't want to define in advance the bounds of acceptability, but within the last couple of years, we had a senior woman lecturer at Jews College. She was teaching Jewish women, and that I think is the first thing to deal with. Do women have their own role models? Of, as it were, Jewish excellence, of a real depth of Jewish learning. 

Presenter: These are the problems Chief Rabbi Sacks has to face, but what is the vision he has for his people? 

Rabbi Sacks: An Anglo-Jewry in which we don't pretend that all is right with our community, so long as there are groups who feel neglected, and there are groups who feel neglected. The women, the young, the intellectuals, the less well-off, the provinces, the small communities.

An Anglo-Jewry in which precisely as committed Jews, we make a distinctive contribution to Britain as a compassionate society. 

Let us work together to plan and create a decade of renewal of Jewish leadership, of Jewish education, of Jewish spirituality. 

Presenter: Jonathan Sacks has until his retirement date in 2018 to see his vision through. For Lord Jakobovits, his Chief Rabbinate was over. 

Lord Jakobovits: I literally hand on the mantle of office to him, and he immediately carries on, as indeed was the case with the very first induction of a rabbinical successor, that is Moses, our first Rabbi, passing on his vestments to Joshua, his successor. 

Rabbi Sacks: I suddenly realised that there was no escape from responsibility.

I called in my sermon for a decade of Jewish renewal. I set myself a target. Now I have to go and, with the rest of Anglo-Jewry, achieve it.