JERUSALEM (JTA) — Lady Amelie Jakobovits, the widow of British Chief Rabbi Baron Immanuel Jakobovits and a supporter of many Jewish causes, has died.
Jakobovits died in Britain last Friday after a short illness. She was 81. She reportedly will be buried in Israel.
"Lady Amelie Jakobovits, known affectionately to Anglo-Jewry as ‘Lady J,’ was an extraordinarily vivid figure of seemingly inexhaustible energy and effervescence," said current British Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks in a statement. "She had warmth, charm, wit and deeply felt faith. She was constantly active, visiting the sick, comforting the bereaved, supporting the many Jewish and medical causes of which she was president or patron."
A survivor of the Holocaust, Jakobovits, the daughter of the chief rabbi of Paris, Elie Munk, married while she was still in her teens. She traveled with Rabbi Jakobovits first to Ireland, where he became chief rabbi of the country; to New York, where he served as rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue; and then to Britain.
Jakobovits founded the Association of United Synagogue Women, and was a patron and supporter of Emunah, Jewish Care, the Chai Cancer Care and WIZO-Women`s International Zionist`s Organization, as well as other causes.
"She was a larger-than-life figure, widely known and loved," Sacks said. "We will miss her deeply."
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