Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks זצ”ל Memorial Libraries in New Zealand

In December 2019, a group of visitors from the USA, the UK and Israel toured New Zealand. They visited both islands and were hosted by the Jewish Communities of Wellington and Auckland. The group was hugely privileged to be accompanied by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks זצ”ל and his wife Lady Elaine.

Rabbi Lord Sacks added a deeply meaningful dimension to the tour by giving Spiritual, Halachic, Talmudic and Torah insights into the wonders witnessed. His erudition, the breadth of his secular knowledge and the depth of his Torah learning, coupled with his humility and deep humanity guaranteed that the insights profoundly affected all of those who travelled with him.

It was therefore with enormous sadness and a huge sense of loss that the group learned of Rabbi Sacks’ untimely passing less than a year after his visit.

While the tour of New Zealand was his last major overseas trip, Rabbi Lord Sacks had also visited Lapland, South America and the Galapagos Islands with other groups. His insights and teachings on those tours were just as illuminating, thought provoking and inspiring.

In order to honour the memory of Rabbi Lord Sacks, members of the New Zealand group decided that a fitting tribute would be to bring together collections of his books and publications and to establish Memorial Libraries within the Synagogues of both Auckland and Wellington to mark his last overseas trip.

To that end, we have set up this crowdfunding page and we invite those who accompanied Rabbi Lord Sacks to New Zealand, as well as all those who joined him on his previous trips, to make a contribution to this memorial project.

Our aim to is to raise approximately NZ $35,000 (US $25,000) to build suitable library cabinets in each Synagogue and to fill these with a collection of his publications. We plan to hold a ceremony of dedication of the libraries, on or close to his first Yahrzeit, and we will enable donors and friends around the world to witness the ceremony via the Internet. A memorial plaque and a list of donors will be placed on the cabinets.

We do hope you will feel able to contribute to this important commemoration

ת.נ.צ.ב.ה

An example of his inspirational teaching can be found below in the link to the TED talk he delivered in July 2017.