Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

Rambam Health Care Campus is proud and honored to bestow the 2015 Rambam Award upon Chief Rabbi the Right Honourable Lord Sacks, for his lifelong work cultivating a meaningful and ethical Judaism to expanding circles of community throughout the world.

Born in London in 1945, Rabbi Sacks was drawn to the study of philosophy and earned an Honours Degree in Philosophy at Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge. The desire for a deeper exploration of faith and religion sent Sacks to New York, to meet the Lubavitcher Rabbi. Rabbi Schneerson encouraged young Sacks to enter the rabbinate, and he went on to receive his rabbinic ordination from Jew’s College and London's Etz Chaim Yeshiva.

After serving as rabbi in two major London synagogues, Rabbi Sacks was inducted to serve as Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth in 1991, a position he held until 1 September 2013. In 2005 Rabbi Sacks was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen, and subsequently made a Life Peer, taking his seat in the House of Lords in October 2009.

Through his extensive teachings, writings, public speaking and media appearances, Rabbi Sacks continues to engage a broad audience on issues of Jewish philosophy and ethics. As an educator, Rabbi Sacks holds professorial positions at universities in the UK, Israel and the United States. He has been bestowed 16 honorary degrees, including a Doctor of Divinity by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Rabbi Sacks is the recipient of the Jerusalem Prize, among many other international awards.

A prolific writer, his religious and secular books and articles are read extensively throughout the Jewish world. Rabbi Sacks has received numerous literary awards, including two National Jewish Book Awards.

In acknowledgement of all the aforesaid, the Prize Committee has found Rabbi Sacks deserving of the 2015 Rambam Award.​