Yeshiva University establishes learning centre in honour of Rabbi Lord Sacks

To mark a year since the death of former chief rabbi Lord Sacks, New York’s Yeshiva University is to open a new learning centre in his name.

The Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Center for Values and Leadership will run a series of academic, communal, educational, and literary initiatives, as well as identifying emerging communal talent.

The former chief rabbi, who died aged 72 from a battle with cancer, had a long-established relationship with Yeshiva University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1997, received the inaugural Lamm Prize in 2010, and was appointed the Kressel and Ephrat Family University Professor of Jewish Thought in 2013. He also regularly addressed the student body, most recently at YU’s Commencement in 2020.

Lady Elaine Sacks said the establishment of the Sacks-Herenstein Center “is something I find extremely moving.

“My husband’s relationship with Yeshiva University was one he treasured over many decades” she said, while thanking Rabbi Dr. Ari Bermanm, its president, and the Herensteins family, which the centre will also be named for. She hoped “generations of students are inspired to live, as my husband described it, “a Judaism engaged with the world,” one that teaches them Jewish values and challenges them to take on leadership positions in their future careers.”

Dr Berman said “Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks uniquely exemplified and articulated Yeshiva University’s world view and mission to the broader Jewish people and the world at large. While his loss left us bereft, his words and teachings continue to inspire and inform. This new centre, powered by his teachings, will be dedicated to both transmitting values and educating next generations’ leaders.”