THE following text is not, strictly speaking, a sermon responding directly to a war situation. It is a transcript ‘in slightly revised form’ of the inaugural address delivered by the chief rabbi on 25 May 1982 to launch a new series of luncheon lectures sponsored by the United Synagogue at the Central Synagogue in London. The war that began fifty-six days earlier is mentioned explicitly in only a single sentence. None of the specificities of Colin Eimer's text (Sermon 32 above) are to be found here. Yet the lecture is more than a theoretical exercise; the reality of an actual war is discernible both in the choice of the topic for the inaug - ural lecture and in the nuances of what the speaker says. I have decided to include it because of its survey of themes that provide the background for any wartime sermon drawing on Jewish tradition in response to contemporary circumstances.

Immanuel Jakobovits was born in 1921 into an East Prussian rabbinic family, and moved with them to Berlin when still a child. He arrived in England as a teenager, and completed his higher education at Jews’ College and London University. He served as chief rabbi of Ireland for nine years before moving to one of the most prestigious congregations in the United States, New York's Fifth Avenue Synagogue. His influential study Jewish Medical Ethics, published during his tenure in New York, established an international reputation. Seven years later, he became chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth; he was knighted in 1981, a year before this lecture was delivered. Chaim Bermant, his biographer, described him as ‘liberal when it comes to Zionism, … conservative on domestic British issues and resolutely die-hard on religious ones’.

Jakobovits begins his address by justifying his topic in a manner that suggests a reaction to the view that rabbis should ‘stick to religion’ and stay away from politics. In addition to their primary responsibility to promote the observance and understanding of Jewish law, he insists that ‘Rabbis should also be expected to relate the wider moral teachings of Judaism to the contempor - ary scene.’