BRODIE, SIR ISRAEL

BRODIE, SIR ISRAEL (1895–1979), chief rabbi of the British Commonwealth, 1948 to 1965. Brodie was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne and educated at Jews' College, London, and at Oxford. He served in World War I as a Jewish chaplain on the Western Front, and then worked in London's East End. From 1923 to 1937 he was senior minister in melbourne , Australia. Brodie returned to England in 1937 to study for an advanced degree at Oxford, and was also on the staff of Jews' College. He again served as a military chaplain during World War II, becoming senior Jewish army chaplain in 1944. He was briefly principal of Jews' College in 1946 and in 1948 he succeeded J.H. Hertz as chief rabbi, holding office until 1965. He was involved in two important controversies: one over his ruling (later modified) that the Israeli pronunciation of Hebrew should not be used in synagogues and in classrooms; the other when he decided that the liberal theological views of louis jacobs disqualified him from being appointed as principal of Jews' College or a minister of the United Synagogue. Brodie edited the Eẓ Ḥayyim of jacob b. judah Ḥazzan of London (3 vols., 1962–67). He was the divisional editor for rabbinical literature in the Encyclopaedia Judaica. Brodie was chief rabbi at a time of far-reaching change, marked by the creation of the State of Israel, the end of the British Empire, and the emergence of many divisions within Anglo-Jewry. He was a dedicated Zionist and recognized the centrality of Israel to contemporary Jewish life. He insisted on maintaining the traditional Orthodox interpretations of Jewish identity and practice. He generally conducted his office – with the exceptions noted above – in a quiet, reserved manner which avoided controversy. It can be argued that the united synagogue was at the peak of its influence during this time, which was generally one of expansion in the Anglo-Jewish mainstream. A Festschrift for Brodie, Essays Presented to … Israel Brodie, edited by Hirsch Jacob Zimmels, Joseph Rabbinowitz, and Israel Finestein, was published in two volumes in 1967. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Shaftesley, in: H.J. Zimmels et al. (eds.), Essays … I. Brodie… (1967), xi–xxxix. ADD. BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online; G. Alderman, Modern British Jewry (1992), index; W.D. Rubinstein, Jews in Great Britain, index. (Vivian David Lipman / William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)