Videos

 Nov 94 Jacobs New London Synagogue Lunch Talk....

 Late 60’s (?) address to Spertus College in Cincinnati by video, recorded in London....

Having written almost 50 books Louis Jacobs looks at them all....

Karen Armstrong interviewing Rabbi Louis Jacobs for Paths of Faiths in November 1984. Karen Armstrong formulates her questions so as to emphasize the unique features of the Jewish faith, attempting to discern the dynamics inherent to Judaism, the variety of experiences and movements which characterize contemporary Jewish practice, and the ways in which these differ from other…...

Rabbi Jacobs discusses the various Jewish groups which make up the contemporary world. He begins with a discussion of the charedim. He points out that their approach to religious matters, for example dress, is uncompromising, although the term ultra-orthodox is misleading. Turning to the orthodox he considers their interaction with and differences from the charedim…....

Rabbi Louis Jacobs reflects in this video upon his past appointments, starting from his early steps as assistant Rabbi in Eli Munk’s Beit Midrash in Golders Green, and concluding with the creation of the New London synagogue and the instigation of the Masorti movement. He offers intimate descriptions of his experience in these communities, each…...

Rabbi Jacobs reflects, in this video, on the Jewish notions of time and eternity. Faithful to his own convictions, he subjects both concepts to careful scrutiny – examining the biblical and rabbinic understandings of the terms – and draws out the implications of such considerations on a wide variety of theological motifs, including Creation and…...

This video made available on this site – December 2015 Lecture from 5th February 1995 This video dates from 1995 and records an open lecture at the time of the 30th anniversary of the New London Synagogue. Rabbi Jacobs starts by recalling the background which led to the publication of his controversial book We Have…...

Rabbi Jacobs offers some historical and religious reflections, in this video, on the variety of religious movements which compose the contemporary Jewish world since the Enlightenment. He starts with the Sephardim, noting that their communities display far greater uniformity than their Ashkenazi peers (in spite of some influence from the European Haskalah movement). He then…...

Rabbi Jacobs published close to 50 books, on subjects spanning between theology and religious practice, mysticism and hasidism, and talmudic studies. In his video, he presents his bibliography, with a number of comments concerning the thesis of each work, their successive republications, and their impact on his career....

Rabbi Jacobs shares his thoughts, in this video (shot on two separate days), on the Masorti movement in England – its history, its ideology, and its goals. He starts his account with the establishment of the New London and New North London Synagogues, founded in the aftermath of the Jacobs Affair as traditional, English Orthodox…...

In this video Rabbi Jacobs discusses Maimonides system of thought, his philosophy, his view of the cosmos and his attitudes to the commandments. He considers Maimonides’s supreme idea, that Judaism as God’s law has purpose and that a state of intellectual perfection is the supreme achievement. However it is a mistake to think of Maimonides…...

Rabbi Jacobs presents, in this lecture, a sketch of Maimonides’ life and thought. He starts by noting the scarcity of details available from medieval sources concerning the thinker’s family – his wives, siblings, and children – as well as his physique. The dates and details of his birth (Cordoba, April 1135) and death (December 1204),…...

This video features some of the reflections which made Louis Jacobs such a unique thinker in Anglo-Jewry. He tackles some of the issues which led to the original Jacobs Affair, including contemporary historical challenges to traditional Jewish beliefs. He starts by noting that the literal interpretation of the biblical account of Creation has yielded, as…...