New York City event honors legacy of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

I had the honor of attending an event on September 4 at the Moise Safra Center in Manhattan that was dedicated to the blessed memory of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks and marked the 20th anniversary edition of his acclaimed book A Letter in the Scroll. The atmosphere that evening was both meaningful and emotional for me personally, as I had met Rabbi Sacks in England and in New York City, when he signed my Koren Sacks Siddur, which I will always treasure. 

The concept behind the title A Letter in the Scroll stems from a famous quotation of Rabbi Sacks: “I am a Jew because, knowing the story of my people, I hear their call to write the next chapter. I did not come from nowhere; I have a past, and if any past commands anyone, this past commands me. I am a Jew because only if I remain a Jew will the story of a hundred generations live on in me. I continue their journey because, having come this far, I may not let it and them fail. I cannot be the missing letter in the scroll.” 

The evening kicked off with a warm welcome by David Miller, CEO of the Moise Safra Center; a gracious introduction by Andrew Klaber, chair of the US Board of the Rabbi Sacks Legacy; an artistic video presentation of Why I Am a Jew, inspired by the words of Rabbi Sacks; and an engaging panel discussion that included Natan Sharansky, Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Dan Senor, and Rabbi David A. Ingber. 

Commemorating Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

At the event, it was announced that Sharansky had been appointed the new chair of the Rabbi Sacks Legacy’s Global Advisory Board. “Rabbi Sacks was a moral lighthouse, and his light is needed more than ever in these dark times,” Sharansky said. “That’s why I have chosen to accept the chairmanship of the Rabbi Sacks Legacy’s Global Advisory Board to ensure that his timeless teachings on Jewish identity, personal responsibility, and the fight against antisemitism reach every corner of the world.”

In his introductory remarks, Klaber said: “We are each of us [as Rabbi Sacks explained] a letter in the scroll of Jewish history and civilization. To be a Jew is to be a link in the chain of generations. We are part of a 4,000-year-old story – a story that extols the sanctity of life and love and demands justice and calls us to be our brother’s keeper and proclaim the oneness of God. The number of Jews in the world is smaller than a minuscule and statistical error in the Chinese census. And yet, when all of us from across the political and religious spectrum add our voice to the 304,805 letters in the Sefer Torah, we blaze warmly, unstoppably, and eternally; and in these challenging times, we must blaze together.” 

The panel discussion was moderated by Senor, who served as a senior advisor to US political figures and co-authored The Genius of Israel and the bestselling Start-up Nation with Saul Singer. Senor noted that on the Hebrew calendar, it was the first day of Elul, and six families in Israel were sitting shiva after their loved ones had been slaughtered just a few days before by Hamas. In A Letter in the Scroll, Senor said, Rabbi Sacks wrote that “crisis is creative and allows us, as more settled times do not, to encounter an ancient heritage.” While we are shaken up during the current crisis for Israel and the Jewish people, he said, this is precisely when we must think more creatively.

The first panel member to be asked a question was Rabbi Ingber, the founding rabbi of Romemu, the largest renewal synagogue in the US, and senior rabbi at 92NY. Asked what A Letter in the Scroll evoked for him, he said that in Jewish law, if one letter in a Torah scroll is missing, it makes the whole Torah pasul (unfit) and not usable. “There is something profoundly sad at this moment, in which the six precious souls who we recently lost were murdered,” he said. “There is a void that is profoundly important to feel as we sit together in union this evening, a concept that makes us think how important every letter is in the scroll.”

The next person to speak was Michal Cotler-Wunsh, Israel’s special envoy for combating antisemitism. Asked about the burden and privilege of being a Jew, she recalled that Rabbi Sacks wrote that there have been two tragedies in modern Jewish life – the first was external and physical (the rise of racial antisemitism in Jewish history), while the second was internal and spiritual. 

Cotler-Wunsh said that when fighting antisemitism and talking to young Jews about it, she was honored to be speaking for the Sacks Legacy “as we try to bring to life what is the most important language that we can be utilizing through both dark times and through good times.” A Letter in the Scroll, she said, first came out when she was a board member of a school in Canada, and it has “guided, instructed, and inspired” every single part of her personal journey as a parent and a public servant for 20 years. As Israel’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, she was overwhelmed with gratitude to have a book such as this, especially during these times.

“When I try to comprehend how it can be that in response to the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust, there isn’t just a rise in antisemitism, there’s a tsunami, I look to Rabbi Sacks,” she said. “He calls it ‘the mutation of antisemitism.’ This enables us to see what is happening today. This new strain of antisemitism is anti-Zionism.”

Sharansky, whose personal life story is historic and legendary, is a human rights activist who after making aliyah served as an Israeli cabinet minister, MK, and chairman of the Jewish Agency. His close friendship with Rabbi Sacks, rooted in their shared commitment to Jewish identity and freedom, makes him uniquely suited to lead the Rabbi Sacks Legacy’s Global Advisory Board.

Sharansky, who wrote the foreword for the new edition of the book, said: “We feel Rabbi Sacks’ loss keenly but are also grateful that he left us his precious words, words that even when we reread them more than 20 years after they were written, carry his gift of opening the fullness of our own existence to us, of inviting us to be everything that we can be.” 

The memorable evening highlighted the continued relevance of A Letter in the Scroll, which was published during Rabbi Sacks’ tenure as the UK’s chief rabbi. The book remains a cornerstone in understanding Jewish identity, blending history, philosophy, and personal reflection in a way that speaks to readers of all backgrounds. 

As the evening drew to a close, attendees left with a renewed sense of purpose and a deeper connection to their heritage, inspired by Rabbi Sacks’ timeless words and the panelists’ insightful reflections. 

“Rabbi Sacks was a unique leader in the Jewish world, and far beyond,” Klaber said. “His voice was one of moral clarity and intellectual depth, for religious and secular audiences alike. Through his writings, countless public engagements and the way he lived his life, he sought to demonstrate how the best of Western thought could enhance Judaism, and how Jewish values could help to repair the many fractures in our society and world.” 

The evening concluded with closing remarks by Bennett Schachter; a prayer for the return of the hostages by Joshua Miller, a scholar at the Sacks-Herenstein Center for Values and Leadership at Yeshiva University); a prayer for the Israel Defense Forces by Zak Benarroch, cantor of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue; and the singing of “Hatikvah.” 

After Rabbi Sacks’ passing in 2020 at the age of 72, the Rabbi Sacks Legacy was established with a mission to perpetuate the timeless and universal wisdom of Rabbi Sacks as a teacher of Torah, a moral voice, and a leader. More information is available at rabbisacks.org.■

The writer received his undergraduate degree in business from Yeshiva University and his MBA from Long Island University. He is a financial adviser who resides in New York City and is involved in Israel-based and Jewish advocacy organizations.