STERNBERG, SIR SIGMUND

STERNBERG, SIR SIGMUND (1921– ), British businessman, interfaith activist, and patron of Reform Judaism. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Sternberg came to England in 1939 when antisemitic laws made it difficult to receive a higher education in Hungary. After the war he became a leading metal recycler and smelter and was later president of the Metal Trades Industry Association. He also served as chairman, for 15 years, of ISYS Ltd., the computer firm. Sternberg is best known, however, for his remarkable activities on behalf of interfaith work in Britain. He was chairman of the executive of the International Council of Christians and Jews and was one of the founders of the Three Faiths Forum, which includes representatives of Islam. In 1988 Sternberg was awarded the Templeton Prize in Religion for having "advanced the public understanding of God and spirituality." He received numerous international honors and in 1985 became one of the few Jews to be made a papal knight. He was also one of the most important leaders of Reform Jewry in Britain, in 1981 endowing the Sternberg Centre for Judaism, the headquarters of Reform Judaism in the country, and he was president of the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain. He was knighted in 1976. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)