Jakobovits was born in
Königsberg,
East Prussia, Germany (now
Kaliningrad, Russia), where his father Julius (Yoel) was a community rabbi. The family moved to
Berlin in the 1920s, where his father became
rabbinical judge on the
beth din of the Grossgemeinde, but fled Germany in 1938 to escape
Nazi persecutions. In the United Kingdom he completed his higher education, including a period at the
Etz Chaim Yeshiva in London, studying under and receiving
semicha (rabbi ordination) from the Rabbis
Elya Lopian,
Leib Gurwicz and
Nachman Shlomo Greenspan. He also studied in
Jews' College and the
University of London (
BA and
PhD,
University College). He married
Amélie Munk of Paris, the daughter of a prominent rabbi, who would support his community work throughout his life. The couple had six children. Lady Jakobovits died in May 2010, and was buried alongside her husband, on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives. His first position was as rabbi of the
Brondesbury synagogue. In 1949, at the relatively young age of 27, he was appointed Chief Rabbi of the declining Jewish community of Ireland. This was to be a stepping stone towards a greater rabbinical career, and in 1958 he assumed the rabbinate of
Hermann Merkin's
Fifth Avenue Synagogue in New York, a position he held until 1966, when he was called to the Chief Rabbinate of the
United Hebrew Congregation of the British Commonwealth. He held this position until his retirement in 1991. He was
knighted on 22 July 1981 and was created a
life peer on 5 February 1988, as
Baron Jakobovits, of
Regent's Park in
Greater London, becoming the first rabbi to receive this honour. In 1987 he was given a
Lambeth DD by the
Archbishop of Canterbury, the first Jew to receive such a degree. In 1991 he received the
Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion. In the
House of Lords he became known as a campaigner for traditional morality. Jakobovits aroused considerable controversy when, after the discovery of a possible genetic explanation for homosexuality, he suggested that he saw no "moral objection for using genetic engineering to limit this particular trend". While he did not advocate abortion, he did describe homosexuality as "a grave departure from the natural norm which we are charged to overcome like any other affliction"; if there were genetic explanations for homosexuality, "the errant gene" should be "removed or repaired" to prevent the "disability". Jakobovits died of a
cerebral haemorrhage on 31 October 1999, and was buried on the
Mount of Olives in
Jerusalem. ==Other functions==