ר׳ ישראל ברודי

ר׳ ישראל ברודי (1895–1979), later Sir Israel Brodie, was chief rabbi of Great Britain and the Commonwealth from 1948 to 1965. Born in Newcastle upon Tyne to Lithuanian immigrant parents, he studied at University College London and Jews’ College, earning first-class honours in Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac, and continued at Balliol College, Oxford. His studies were interrupted by service as a British Army Jewish chaplain in France in 1917–1919. After work in London’s East End he became minister of Melbourne Hebrew Congregation and head of the Victorian Beth Din in 1923. He supported Eastern European immigrants, founded and led the Zionist Federation of Australia, and encouraged cooperation among Australia’s dispersed communities. Returning to Britain in 1937, he served again as a military chaplain during the Second World War, was evacuated from Dunkirk, served with the RAF in the Middle East and became senior Jewish chaplain to the British forces in 1944. Appointed principal of Jews’ College in 1946 and chief rabbi in 1948, he helped consolidate postwar British Orthodoxy and European rabbinic cooperation. His refusal to confirm ר׳ לואיס ג׳ייקובס as Jews’ College principal precipitated the Jacobs Affair. He retired in 1965, was knighted in 1969, died in Lambeth and was buried at Willesden Jewish Cemetery.