The Controversy, Community & Politics (Scrapbook)

The Controversy - Sometimes Called The Jacobs Affair

It all began with a book. It was called We Have Reason to Believe and was written by Rabbi Jacobs in 1957 - the end product of a series of talks at a discussion group he had led in New London Synagogue. The main thesis of the book was that Jews in the modern world did not have to abandon reason in order to retain their faith in God and his Torah. To be a bit more specific, not abandoning reason in this instance meant that one did not have to believe that the Torah was literally handed over to Moses by God, or dictated word for word. Rather, it was a divinely inspired text which evolved over time and this, Rabbi Jacobs claimed, did not diminish its holiness or authority.

Such statements may not seem particularly outrageous to us today and the fact is that they went unnoticed by the religious leadership of the time, too. Rabbi Jacobs showed the manuscript to a number of people, including Chief Rabbi Brodie, who welcomed and approved of the book. It was generally well received and was labelled 'the modern man's guide to Orthodoxy'.

Had the book been published at a later date, Rabbi Jacobs may well have been appointed Chief Rabbi following the retirement of Rabbi Brodie a couple of years later. Rabbi Jacobs, however, was not a man who would want to consider strategic steps like that and decided to publish his work straightaway, whatever the consequences.

In 1960, Louis Jacobs was appointed moral tutor at Jews' College, the Orthodox rabbinical seminary of London. The following year, when the principal retired, Jacobs was put forward as a candidate for the principal's position. His application was, however, vetoed by Chief Rabbi Brodie - the reason being that he objected to Rabbi Jacobs' 'published views' (in We Have Reason to Believe). Jacobs left Jews' College in response, and some sympathizers resigned with him. This was, as William Frankel called it, Part One of the Jacobs Affair.