In the two-plus years since Oct. 7, 2023, Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ writings on leadership, ethics and Jewish responsibility have found renewed life across the Jewish world.
His books are showing up again in synagogue study groups. His speeches continue circulating online. And his ideas about moral leadership and Jewish identity are increasingly resurfacing in conversations about how Jews move forward after trauma, division and uncertainty.
Now, a St. Louis family is helping bring those conversations to a global audience.
On June 8, Bar-Ilan University in Israel will host the second annual Adam Cherrick & Bernard Cherrick Memorial Lecture Series,
This year’s lecture, “The Burning Bush and Ethical Discovery: Rabbi Sacks and Contemporary Jewish Thought,” will be delivered by Dr. Miriam Feldmann-Kaye and livestreamed worldwide from the university’s campus in Ramat Gan.
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A growing sense of urgency
For Jordan Cherrick, the lecture series reflects growing concerns about Jewish continuity and leadership at a moment he believes many Jews are searching for deeper grounding.
“Without a foundational Jewish education, how can we expect Judaism to survive and thrive?” Cherrick said.
He said he worries many Jews have become disconnected from core Jewish learning and values during a period marked by rising antisemitism, political division and growing fractures within the Jewish world.
“The failure to treat one’s brother or sister with civility and respect is undermining the ethical and moral principles of Judaism,” he said.
That concern helped inspire the family’s decision last year to establish the lecture series through an endowment supporting public conversations around Jewish studies, ethics and contemporary Jewish thought at Bar-Ilan University.
Why Rabbi Sacks still resonates
The event also reflects the enduring influence of Rabbi Sacks, the former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom, who became one of the most widely read Jewish thinkers of the modern era before his death in 2020.
According to material provided by Bar-Ilan University, Feldmann-Kaye said that since Oct. 7, one question keeps resurfacing in conversations about Rabbi Sacks’ legacy:
“What would Rabbi Sacks have said right now?”
Feldmann-Kaye said Rabbi Sacks’ absence has forced many Jews to think differently about leadership and moral responsibility during moments of crisis.
“His legacy actually puts more responsibility on all of us to step up and to think about what we can do in these times,” she said.
Cherrick said many Jews today appear to be searching for exactly that kind of moral framework.
“Books on Judaism by scholars such as Chief Rabbi Sacks, of blessed memory, must be studied so that we can return to genuine faith in one God who created us in His image,” he said.
From St. Louis to the world
The lecture series was launched last year by American Friends of Bar-Ilan University as a platform for exploring Jewish ethics, philosophy and identity through public scholarship.
This year’s speaker, Feldmann-Kaye, is an assistant professor in Bar-Ilan’s Department of Jewish Philosophy, a faculty member at the Jonathan Sacks Institute and the author of a forthcoming book titled “The Burning Bush in Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Philosophy.”
According to organizers, the lecture will explore how the biblical story of the burning bush can serve as a framework for understanding ethics, leadership and moral responsibility in modern Jewish life.
Feldmann-Kaye’s lecture takes place June 8 at 9 a.m. CT. Registration is available online.
The Adam Cherrick & Bernard Cherrick Memorial Lecture Series is endowed by Jordan B., Lorraine S. and Rachel M. Cherrick of St. Louis. The series honors the memory of Adam Cherrick z”l, the late son of Jordan and Lorraine Cherrick and Bernard Cherrick z”l, Jordan Cherrick’s cousin, mentor and longtime educator in Israel.
