Jewish Attitude to Jesus
Nov 94 Jacobs New London Synagogue Lunch Talk....
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Dr Louis Jacobs ‘Spertus College Commencement Address’
Late 60’s (?) address to Spertus College in Cincinnati by video, recorded in London....
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Own Books
Having written almost 50 books Louis Jacobs looks at them all....
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Karen Armstrong interviews Louis Jacobs – November 1984
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…...
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Variety in Modern Judaism
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…....
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English Judaism as a Religious Outlook
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…...
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Time and Eternity
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…...
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We Have Reason To Believe in Torah Min Hashamayim
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…...
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Variety in Traditional Judaism
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…...
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50 Years of Inquiry: A Retrospect
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....
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Masorti
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…...
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Maimonides Lecture Two
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…...
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Maimonides Lecture One
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),…...
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Judaism as a Developing Religion
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…...
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Greatest British Jew on the Greatest British Jew
Rabbi Louis Jacobs responds, in this video, to his election as the ‘greatest British Jew’ in the Jewish Chronicle. He describes the whole enterprise of casting a vote for such a figure as absurd and daft, and demonstrates that the notion of greatness is necessarily subjective. Indeed, the candidates each distinguished themselves in very different…...
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Britain’s Greatest Jew Q & A
In 2005, The Jewish Chronicle readers voted Louis Jacobs as the ‘greatest British Jew’. The vote proved a clear indication of Jacobs’s popularity and influence in the British-Jewish community, and provided the Friends with the opportunity to celebrate his legacy with this Q&A. Reuven Hammer hosted the event, putting forward ten questions from the audience,…...
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Koppel Kahanah
In this video, Rabbi Jacobs reflects on his long-standing friendship with and admiration for a teacher and colleague of his, R. Koppel Kahanah. He describes R. Kahanah as a colourful and very influential rabbi, once well-known in the Anglo-Jewish community, but now remembered only be his few disciples. Kahanah came to England from Lithuania just…...
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The Position of Women
Louis Jacobs answers a number of important questions, in this video, relating to the status of women in Judaism. Can women be ordained as rabbis or cantors in synagogues? Can they be counted in a minyan? Can they read the Torah, or receive an aliyah? Can they wear tefilin or tsitsit? He discusses each of…...
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Ages of Sages
The gaonim were purported to live to a very old age. The Vilna Gaon died at 70. Israel Kagan, the Chofetz Chaim, the great exponent of harmony among people died at 90. This video tells us more about their lives than we may care to know. ...
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10 Commandments
Rabbi Jacobs discusses the significance of the Ten Commandments in Jewish thought. He questions the assumption that they sit at the heart of revelation. How do we understand the two versions of the Ten Commandments? Rabbinic tradition presents a range of views. Equally, there are different ways of understanding them today. Historically, the role of…...
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Two Concepts of Learning
This was the lecture Louis Jacobs was supposed to give to celebrate the move of his library to the Oxford Centre. Due to his illness he was unable to deliver the talk but this video covers much of his intended lecture and was taken just a few days before his death. Jewish learning today is…...
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Thinkers 2
Rabbi Jacobs begins by discussing AJ Heschel. He first considers his formative influences, which included his hasidic childhood, the Baal Shem Tov, the writings of the Kotsker rebbe and German secular culture. Peppered as always with anecdotes, personal recollections and quotations from his prodigious memory, Rabbi Jacobs then offers insights into Heschel’s personality and behaviour…...
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Thinkers 1
Rabbi Jacobs offer his person reflections on three leading Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century. He begins by recounting a public exchange he had with Emmanuel Levinas at a symposium they both attended. Their dispute was about religious tolerance in the pre-modern age and the application of the Talmud to modern philosophy. He then turns…...
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The Elliot Cosgrove Interview
On a visit to London, Rabbi Dr Elliot Cosgrove of the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York took the opportunity to interview Rabbi Jacobs. They first discuss the influences on Rabbi Jacobs’s thought, particularly the differences between his yeshiva and university experiences and his teachers. Rabbi Cosgrove then asks Rabbi Jacobs how he would characterise…...
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Lubavitch
This is a talk given by Rabbi Jacobs after he had retired from his role as the rabbi of the New London Synagogue, when he felt more able to express his personal views more freely. Taking his cue from a controversy in the United Synagogue over the appointment of a Lubavitch rabbi to a communal…...
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Library
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Goral – Lottery
This video is based on a book of Rabbi Jacobs’s jottings. Here he discusses the use of the Bible for semi-magical purposes, known as bibliomancy, and particularly the Lottery of the Vilna Gaon. The technique involves turning seven pages of the bible and reading the seventh line. It is similar to a seventeenth century Anglo…...
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Favourite Books, Authors & Writing
Rabbi Jacobs first discusses one book in each of his three specialist fields of theology, mysticism, and Talmud. His choice for theology is Maimonides’s Guide to the Perplexed. However, Rabbi Jacobs owns up to the fact that he is not overly keen on Maimonides, largely because his medieval views are rooted in Greek philosophy. He…...
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Brit and Pidyon Haben – Louis Jacobs
In this video, Rabbi Dr Louis Jacobs discusses the two ceremonies associated with the birth of a baby boy; the circumcision and the redemption ceremony of a first born son. Drawing, as ever, on his extensive command of sources and stories, he explores the rationale behind the circumcision ritual and its details. He discusses Maimonides’s…...
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Book Launch
At the New London Synagogue the latest of the books written by Rabbi Jacobs....
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