Dr. Immanuel Jakobovits, of New York, a 44-year-old Orthodox rabbi who was born in Germany and educated in London, was elected today as chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregation of the British Commonwealth.
He was elected by the Chief Rabbinate Conference which is the electoral college for such a choice, and is composed of representatives of the United Synagogue as well as of delegates from communities in provincial Britain, delegates from Commonwealth countries, and other bodies which recognize the authority of the chief rabbi and contribute financially to the expenditures of the Chief Rabbinate. Dr. Jakobovits is scheduled to assume his new post some time after next Passover.
Sir Isaac Wolfs on was chairman of the Conference, which traditionally dissolves after electing the chief rabbi. He is president of the United Synagogue, with which approximately 80 percent of the British Commonwealth’s Jews are affiliated.
Dr. Jakobovits is now rabbi of the Fifth Avenue Synagogue, an Orthodox house of worship in New York. He was rabbi of London’s Great Synagogue in 1947. After two years in that post, he became the chief rabbi of the Jewish communities in Ireland, serving in that post from 1949 to 1958. He came to the United States and his present rabbinate in 1958.
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