Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since 1991. He is the spiritual leader for the mainstream British Orthodox[…]
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The size of the Jewish community in America is a quantum leap from what it is in any European country—and its sheer scale makes it more “exciting.”
Question: How is being Jewish different in the U.K. than it isrn in the U.S.?
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rnLord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: The Jewish community in the United rnStates is 20 times as big as the Jewish community in Britain so you havern critical mass. We were walking through Fifth Avenue as part of the rnIsrael parade in New York. Now, the hundreds of thousands of people rnthat take part in that—we couldn’t possibly assemble that many people, rnalthough you know, we’ve done not badly. But the maximum we’ve ever gotrn together is 55,000 Jews in Trafalgar Square. The sheer scale of Jewry rnin America is a quantum leap from what it is in any European country andrn that is… that results in enormous diversity, creativity. American rnJewry is exciting in ways that just don’t have the numbers for.
rn
rnQuestion: Should the U.S. have a Chief Rabbi?
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rnLord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: The United States does not have an rnArchbishop of Canterbury. It doesn’t have central institutionalized rnreligious leadership. So there’s no model on which the Jewish communityrn could possibly build. The United States is the United States and I rnlove it and Britain is Britain and it’s different. I mean we have rnmonarch. We have, you know, a House of Lords, all this kind of stuff rnwhich just looks crazy to an American, or either that or very ancient. rnAnd it is very ancient but it’s very beautiful so I think each country rnfinds its own way of being itself and every Jewish community finds its rnown way of being Jewish.
rn
rnQuestion: What do you say to those who believe the role of Chief rnRabbi has run its course?
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rnLord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: That statement really has never been rnmore untrue. It is absolutely clear today that given the smallness of rnour community, not only are there more Muslims than Jews in Britain, notrn only are there more Hindus than Jews in Britain, there are more Sikhs rnthan Jews in Britain. And if we continue to want to have some kind of rninfluence, we’re going to need the two kinds of representative voice rnthat we have. One if called the Board of Deputies, which defends Jewishrn interestsa bit like your Conference of Presidents. And the other is rnthe Chief Rabbi who articulates Judaic principle. So given that the rnworld if more unstable—Europe especially than ever before—I think every rnother religious community envies us for this particular office. The rnMuslims, the Sikhs and the Hindus would love to have such a thing but rnthey are not constituted to do it and so they don’t.
rn
rnRecorded May 24, 2010
rnInterviewed by Jessica Liebman
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rnLord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: The Jewish community in the United rnStates is 20 times as big as the Jewish community in Britain so you havern critical mass. We were walking through Fifth Avenue as part of the rnIsrael parade in New York. Now, the hundreds of thousands of people rnthat take part in that—we couldn’t possibly assemble that many people, rnalthough you know, we’ve done not badly. But the maximum we’ve ever gotrn together is 55,000 Jews in Trafalgar Square. The sheer scale of Jewry rnin America is a quantum leap from what it is in any European country andrn that is… that results in enormous diversity, creativity. American rnJewry is exciting in ways that just don’t have the numbers for.
rn
rnQuestion: Should the U.S. have a Chief Rabbi?
rn
rnLord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: The United States does not have an rnArchbishop of Canterbury. It doesn’t have central institutionalized rnreligious leadership. So there’s no model on which the Jewish communityrn could possibly build. The United States is the United States and I rnlove it and Britain is Britain and it’s different. I mean we have rnmonarch. We have, you know, a House of Lords, all this kind of stuff rnwhich just looks crazy to an American, or either that or very ancient. rnAnd it is very ancient but it’s very beautiful so I think each country rnfinds its own way of being itself and every Jewish community finds its rnown way of being Jewish.
rn
rnQuestion: What do you say to those who believe the role of Chief rnRabbi has run its course?
rn
rnLord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: That statement really has never been rnmore untrue. It is absolutely clear today that given the smallness of rnour community, not only are there more Muslims than Jews in Britain, notrn only are there more Hindus than Jews in Britain, there are more Sikhs rnthan Jews in Britain. And if we continue to want to have some kind of rninfluence, we’re going to need the two kinds of representative voice rnthat we have. One if called the Board of Deputies, which defends Jewishrn interestsa bit like your Conference of Presidents. And the other is rnthe Chief Rabbi who articulates Judaic principle. So given that the rnworld if more unstable—Europe especially than ever before—I think every rnother religious community envies us for this particular office. The rnMuslims, the Sikhs and the Hindus would love to have such a thing but rnthey are not constituted to do it and so they don’t.
rn
rnRecorded May 24, 2010
rnInterviewed by Jessica Liebman
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