Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from September 1991 until his retirement in 2013.

Educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge he pursued postgraduate studies at New College, Oxford, and King’s College London. He received semicha from Jews’ College and Yeshiva Etz Chaim. The Chief Rabbi holds 14 honorary degrees and has been awarded a number of prizes, including the Jerusalem Prize 1995 for his contribution to diaspora Jewish life and The Ladislaus Laszt Ecumenical and Social Concern Award from Ben Gurion University.

He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 2005, made a Life Peer in 2009 and is a frequent contributor to radio, television and the national press. He has written 24 books, a number of which have won literary awards, including the Grawemeyer Prize for Religion in 2004 for The Dignity of Difference, and a National Jewish Book Award in 2000 for A Letter in the Scroll. Covenant and Conversation: Genesis also won the National Jewish Book Award in 2009.

Born in 1948 in London, he has been married to Elaine since 1970. They have three children and six grandchildren.