Rabbis Jeremy Collick, David Goldberg, Harry Jacobi, Ernst Stein and Charles Wallach

Abstract

Founded in 1956, Leo Baeck College is a relatively young institution in the world of rabbinic seminaries, yet it has been in existence long enough to witness the passing of a number of distinguished rabbis who have graduated from its programme. Sadly this ‘in memoriam’ commemorates the death of five such rabbis within the period of a year, each of whom has served the Jewish community and beyond, each of whom leaves a significant legacy and whose absence is a serious loss to family and friends, the communities they have served and the wider world. They came from very different backgrounds: two of them born in pre-war Germany, refugees who came late in life to rabbinic studies; two of them born and educated in the UK; one born in South Africa. They served in a variety of congregational settings: in the UK and continental European Liberal congregations; one worked within the Einheitsgemeinde system in Berlin, and one in the emerging Masorti movement in the UK; one served South Africa and Australia as well. They each offered a unique set of personal qualities and experience to the task.