Rabbi Dr. Elliot Cosgrove, who celebrated his inaugural shabbat this past weekend as Senior Rabbi at the Park Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, recently-completed his doctoral dissertation (June 2008) at the University of Chicago Divinity School on the late Rabbi Louis Jacobs of London. May Rabbi Dr. Elliot Cosgrove continue to serve his congregation in New York, and continue to serve klal yisrael, with the class, warmth, and erudition that were the hallmark of his tenure in Chicago.
Elliot Cosgrove, "Teyku: The Insoluble Contradictions in the Life and Thought of Louis Jacobs," (PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 2008) is the first complete intellectual biography of Rabbi Louis Jacobs of London -- who passed away in 2006, and whose yahrzeit is this evening/tomorrow, 5 Tammuz -- and the author extensively interviewed Jacobs, mined all of Jacobs' published/unpublished writings, private journals and correspondences (along with those of the other protagonists mentioned in the dissertation), and contextualized his life within many of the celebrated twentieth century Anglo-Jewish controversies. Among the numerous interesting historical bits of information in the dissertation is where Cosgrove noted that Jacobs often served as an alternate on the Manchester Beit Din, where Rabbi Prof. Alexander Altmann served as Av Beit Din, along with Dayan Yaakov Yitzchak Weiss, author of She'elot u-Teshuvot Minchat Yitzchak (see p. 1:75-76 of dissertation); as well as the extended discussions of the hitherto-unknown/not-publicly-discussed relationship between, and influence of, Alexander Altmann on Louis Jacobs; the dissertation includes, as well, of course, analysis of the ramifications following the 1957 publication of Jacobs' We Have Reason to Believe, discussed in chapter four, which commences with Altmann's letter to Jacobs:
Pop quiz: Who else was termed by the London Jewish Chronicle as "the greatest Chief Rabbi that we never had"?
Elliot Cosgrove, "Teyku: The Insoluble Contradictions in the Life and Thought of Louis Jacobs," (PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 2008) is the first complete intellectual biography of Rabbi Louis Jacobs of London -- who passed away in 2006, and whose yahrzeit is this evening/tomorrow, 5 Tammuz -- and the author extensively interviewed Jacobs, mined all of Jacobs' published/unpublished writings, private journals and correspondences (along with those of the other protagonists mentioned in the dissertation), and contextualized his life within many of the celebrated twentieth century Anglo-Jewish controversies. Among the numerous interesting historical bits of information in the dissertation is where Cosgrove noted that Jacobs often served as an alternate on the Manchester Beit Din, where Rabbi Prof. Alexander Altmann served as Av Beit Din, along with Dayan Yaakov Yitzchak Weiss, author of She'elot u-Teshuvot Minchat Yitzchak (see p. 1:75-76 of dissertation); as well as the extended discussions of the hitherto-unknown/not-publicly-discussed relationship between, and influence of, Alexander Altmann on Louis Jacobs; the dissertation includes, as well, of course, analysis of the ramifications following the 1957 publication of Jacobs' We Have Reason to Believe, discussed in chapter four, which commences with Altmann's letter to Jacobs:
"I am greatly interested in your forthcoming publication which I am sure will arouse great interest. Fortunately, you are in a position in which 'the ire' of the fundamentalists can do you no harm, backed as you are by your congregation" (see p. 1:171 of dissertation).Standing where we are today, of course, we have seen how the publication of Jacobs' We Have Reason to Believe derailed his efforts towards greater communal and leadership roles within Anglo-Jewry, leading Jacobs to be [frequently] termed by the London Jewish Chronicle as "the greatest Chief Rabbi that we never had."
Pop quiz: Who else was termed by the London Jewish Chronicle as "the greatest Chief Rabbi that we never had"?
9 comments:
R' Kook?
If this is a trick question the answer may be the R Sacks who headed Jews College and seemed very full of promise before becoming CR.
It is Samson Raphael Hirsch
It wasn't Rav Hirsch, Rav Kook, or Chief Rabbi Sacks. The designation was used by the London Jewish Chronicle to refer to great rabbis who, though not serving in the position of Chief Rabbi, nonetheless served their religion and country proud. Keep guessing!!
SR Hirsch
Yaacov Herzog
R. Prof. Alexander Altman
Brilliant scholar, student of Sredi Eish but German, could not be hired in the the post war years.
The JC felt bad about that as they thought that CR Brodie was too rigid and this caused altman to go to brandies making the arguably leading theologian to leave their shores
The dissertation can be found in two volumes here.
Pop quiz: Who else was termed by the London Jewish Chronicle as "the greatest Chief Rabbi that we never had"?
HUGO GRYN
Post a Comment