The following list of chief rabbis of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth gives information regarding the Chief Rabbi of the United Synagogue, which is represented through the mainstream majority Orthodox community of the United Kingdom (as the oldest and original denomination), and various other Orthodox communities located within the Commonwealth of Nations. The Chief Rabbi's full title is the "Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth", previously "... of the British Empire". His title and position has historically, since 1758, been considered to be the Orthodox Jewish community in Britain's equivalent of the Archbishop of Canterbury.[1]
List
[edit]№ | Image | Name | Term | Title | Notes | Reason for termination |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | ![]() |
Aaron Hart | 1704 – 1756 | Rabbi of the Great Synagogue | Died in office | |
2 | ![]() |
Hart Lyon | 1758 – 1764 | Rabbi of the Great Synagogue | Resigned | |
3 | ![]() |
Tevele Schiff | 1765 – 1766 | Chief Rabbi | Rabbi appointed by the Great Synagogue |
|
4 | ![]() |
Meshullam Solomon | 1765 – 1780 | Chief Rabbi | Appointed in opposition by Hambro and the New Synagogues; return to Hamburg confirmed the primacy of David Tevele Schiff |
|
5 | ![]() |
Tevele Schiff | 1780 – 1791 | Chief Rabbi | Died in office | |
1791 – 1802 | Post vacant | |||||
6 | ![]() |
Solomon Hirschell | 1802 – 1842 | Chief Rabbi | Died in office | |
7 | ![]() |
Nathan Marcus Adler | 1845 – 1890 | Chief Rabbi | ||
8 | ![]() |
Hermann Adler | 1891 – 1911 | Chief Rabbi | Appointed delegate Chief Rabbi in 1879 due to failing health of his father |
|
9 | ![]() |
Joseph Hertz | 1913 – 1946 | Chief Rabbi | Died in office | |
10 | Israel Brodie | 1948 – 1965 | Chief Rabbi | Retired | ||
11 | ![]() |
Immanuel Jakobovits | 1966 – 1991 | Chief Rabbi | knighted 1981 life peer 1988 |
Retired |
12 | ![]() |
Jonathan Sacks | 1991 – 2013 | Chief Rabbi | knighted 2005 life peer 2009 |
Retired |
13 | ![]() |
Ephraim Mirvis | 2013 – present | Chief Rabbi | knighted 2023 | Currently serving |
See also
[edit]- Chief Rabbi
- British Jews
- History of the Jews in England
- History of the Jews in Scotland
- History of the Jews in Wales
- History of the Jews in Northern Ireland
References
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- Meir Persoff, Faith Against Reason: Religious Reform and the British Chief Rabbinate 1840-1990, London: Vallentine Mitchell, 2008 ISBN 0853036705
- Meir Persoff, Hats in the Ring: Choosing Britain’s Chief Rabbis from Adler to Sacks, Academic Studies Press, 2013 ISBN 1618112694
- Benjamin J. Elton, Britain's Chief Rabbis and the Religious Character of Anglo-Jewry, 1880–1970, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009 ISBN 0719079659
- Danny Rich, What is Wrong with the Chief Rabbi's Job?, Manna, Summer 2009
- Raymond Apple (2009), The British Chief Rabbinate; and other articles