Rebel rabbi, 85, wins vote for the greatest British Jew

A controversial 85 year-old rabbi from Manchester has been voted the greatest British Jew in a poll of the Jewish community.

The vote, organised by The Jewish Chronicle to celebrate the 350th anniversary next year of the readmission of Jews to England by Oliver Cromwell, pitted illustrious figures such as Harold Pinter and Isaiah Berlin and Benjamin Disraeli against each other.

But the surprise overall winner was Louis Jacobs, a ground-breaking Jewish thinker noted for his attempt to reconcile modern scholarship and Orthodox teachings. His victory was heralded as a "stinging rebuke to fundamentalism" and is likely to irritate some members of the Orthodox establishment.

Rabbi Jacobs said: "I feel both embarrassed and daft. I am overwhelmed and feel totally unworthy."

Rabbi Jacobs grew up in Manchester with a passion for cricket and an aptitude for academia. Initially tipped as the next chief rabbi, his radical theological writings and their radical views on the origin of the Torah provoked fierce and acrimonious debate within British Jewry. During the 1960s and 1970s, he became an isolated figure, no longer welcome within the United Synagogue. But in recent years he has become the inspiration to the new, more liberal Masorti movement.

As recently as 1995, Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, accused the Masorti of being "disreputable and unforgivable", insisting that anyone who did not believe that the Torah was the law as revealed by God to Moses had "severed links with the faith of his ancestors".

Some 2,000 votes were cast, whittling down the original 100 names to a shortlist of 14, then an ultimate winner. The runner-up was the communal leader Moses Montefiore, who led British Jewry for more than 40 years; another rabbi, Hugo Gryn, came third.

Jeff Barak, the managing editor of The Jewish Chronicle, said the choice of Louis Jacobs as ultimate winner was a surprise but showed British Jews were "looking for the middle road, maintaining their traditional religious heritage in the modern world, a synthesis between the strands of their lives". He appreciated the winner might not please everyone, adding: "I expect there will be a lot of disquiet among the more orthodox."

The winners

The respective winners in each of the seven categories in the search for the greatest British Jew since 1656. After voting by category, those polled were then asked to nominate an overall winner.

RELIGIOUS (AND OVERALL WINNER)

Louis Jacobs - rabbi (1920-)

His attempt to combine traditional theology with biblical criticism led to him being forced to leave the United Synagogue and resulted in the rise of Masorti Judaism in Britain.

ARTS

Harold Pinter - playwright, director and actor (1930- )

Brought up in Clapton in east London, Pinter was a pupil at Hackney Downs Grammar School. This year's Nobel laureate for literature, he is also a political activist supporting a number of causes.

POLITICS

Benjamin Disraeli - politician and novelist (1804-1881)

His main term as Prime Minister (1874-1880) was marked by the purchase of the Suez Canal and the Congress of Berlin which limited Russian expansion. Despite being baptised as a child, he revelled in his Jewish heritage.

BUSINESS

Simon Marks - retailer (1888-1964)

Took over the chain of shops his father had established in the Midlands and turned Marks & Spencer into a national chain of stores with a reputation for affordable, quality products and lodged it in the public consciousness.

SCIENCE

Isaiah Berlin - philosopher (1909-1997)

Born in Riga, Latvia, he came to England in 1921 and spent most of his adult life in Oxford, where he was professor of social and political theory.

COMMUNAL AND PHILANTHROPIC

Rebecca Sieff - Women Zionists' leader (1890-1966)

She helped found and was first president of the Federation of Women Zionists in Great Britain and of the Women's International Zionist Organisation, travelling extensively on behalf of both.

READERS' CHOICE

Rosalind Franklin - physicist (1920-1958)

She contributed greatly to understanding the structures of coal, graphite and viruses, and particularly to DNA and the double helix.