Over the past two years, plant-based food consumption has grown by 49% across the EU, reaching a total sales volume of €3.6 billion.
Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth
2025-05-15
A global religious leader, philosopher, writer, and moral voice of our time, Rabbi Rod Jonathan Sacks is currently the Kressel and Ephrat Family Professor of Jewish Thought at New York University and at Yeshiva University, and the Inger and Ira Rennert Distinguished Professor of Global Jewish Thought at Yeshiva University. He is also Professor of Law, Ethics, and the Bible at King's College London. From September 1991 to September 2013, Rabbi Sacks served as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.
HRH the Prince of Wales described him as "a light to this nation," while former British Prime Minister Tony Blair called him an "intellectual giant." Rabbi Sacks is a frequent guest on radio, television, and in print, both in the UK and around the world. A visiting professor at several universities in the UK, the US, and Israel, Rabbi Sacks holds 16 honorary degrees, including a Doctor of Divinity conferred by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, in commemoration of his first decade as Chief Rabbi.
Rabbi Sacks has received numerous international awards for his work, including the 1995 Jerusalem Prize for Literature for his contributions to Jewish life in the Diaspora and the LadislausLaszt Ecumenical Prize, as well as the 2011 Social Care Award from Ben-Gurion University in Israel. In 2014, the Becket Fund's 2014 Canterbury Medallist was named in his honor for his contributions to religious freedom in the Defence of Civic Square. In 2005, Her Majesty the Queen proposed and appointed him a life peerage, and he officially took his seat in the House of Lords in October 2009.
To date, Rabbi Sacks has authored 25 books, commenting on the Jewish daily prayer book (siddur) and completing commentaries on the prayer books (machzorim) for Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover. His book, The Great Partners: God, Science, and the Search for Meaning, published in July 2011, articulated a method for the coexistence of religion and science and received widespread acclaim. Many of his books have received literary awards, including the 2004 Grawemeyer Award for Religious Studies in Religion for The Dignity of Difference and the 2000 National Jewish Book Award for A Rolling Letter. In 2009, Covenant and Dialogue: Genesis was awarded the National Jewish Book Award, and in 2013, Colen Sacks's Passover Machzor won the National Jewish Dorot Foundation Book Award for Modern Jewish Thought and Experience. His weekly Torah commentary, Covenant and Dialogue, is read by thousands of Jewish communities around the world.
His latest book, No Right in God's Name: Confronting Religious Violence, was published in June 2015 and explores the roots of violence and its relationship to religion, focusing on the historic tensions between the three Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. You can read more about it or purchase it at this link: http://www.amazon.com/Jonathan-Sacks/e/B001HCVVK8/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
Rabbi Sacks was born in London in 1948 and educated at Gonville & Caius College and Cambridge University, graduating with honors in philosophy. He continued his studies at New College, Oxford University, and King's College London in 1981, where he received his doctorate. That same year, he was ordained by EtzChaim, a yeshiva and theological college also in London. He has served as rabbi at Golders Green and Marble Arch Synagogues in London. In addition to his service as Chief Rabbi, he is also Chairman of the Principal Jewish University, the oldest rabbinical seminary in the world. Rabbi Sacks married Elaine in 1970 and has three children, Joshua, Dina, and Gila, as well as several grandchildren.