Louis Jacobs: Anglo Jewry's great lost opportunity

Congratulations are in order for Rabbi Dr. Louis Jacobs, recently voted by the Jewish Chronicle as Anglo Jewry's greatest Jew. He is also in many ways Anglo Jewry's greatest tragedy.

As a result of the scandal surrounding his book We have reason to believe, his appointment as head of Jews College, the London based rabbinic training school, was blocked. Under his leadership, the now defunct Jews College may well have become a world renowned centre of rabbinic excellence. Instead it was reduced to little more than a provincial college. And as a result, we have been reduced to importing our Rabbis from overseas or from Chabad.

Louis Jacobs represents a lost opportunity for Anglo Jewry, a community which doesn't appear to believe in itself.