Rabbi Lord Sacks awarded honorary doctorate by Technion

Former Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks has praised science and religion as “the great partnership our world needs” as he was awarded an honourary doctorate by Israeli technology university Technion.

Sacks was praised for his “profound dedication to the State of Israel and the Jewish people” and a “lifetime contribution to enriching Jewish identity,” as he was described by the university as “one of the world’s foremost Jewish thinkers and philosophers”.

Previous honourary doctors at Technion have included Margaret Thatcher, Albert Einstein and Elie Wiesel.

In his speech, Sacks said: “The relationship between science and religion is one of the most important connections in the world today. Often portrayed as a conflict, they are radically different disciplines. Science takes things apart to see how they work. Religion puts things together to see what they mean. Both are vital.”

He added: “In a world of remarkable scientific discoveries, so many of them in Israel, we must remember that ethics and morality have a significant part to play in this development.

“The Jewish people and the Jewish state have always simultaneously sought to be a creative and a moral force. Nowhere in the world is better placed to maintain this balance than here in Israel, and the Technion is one of the key institutions at the cutting edge of this work.”