Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi in the UK who reached beyond the Jewish community with his regular broadcasts on radio, has died at 72.
A statement on his Twitter page said he died early Saturday.
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Sacks served as the chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, the figurehead of British Jews, for 22 years, stepping down in 2013.
He was succeeded by the current chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who said the world had lost an "intellectual giant who had a transformative global impact."
President Reuven Rivlin issued a statement saying Israel was "mourning the loss of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
We will always remember his warning against violence in the name of God and his belief that we can heal a fractured world. Condolences to his family, to British Jewry and to his students. May his memory be a blessing."
For many people in the UK, Sacks was best known for his regular broadcasts on the "Thought of the Day" fixture on BBC Radio 4's "Today" program, the network's flagship morning news program.
Mohit Bakaya, the controller of the radio channel, said Sacks was a man of "great intellect, humanity and warmth," whose contributions to the "Thought of the Day" segment were "some of the most erudite."
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined in the tributes to Sacks, saying his leadership had a "profound impact on our whole country and across the world."
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Rabbi Sacks was a tireless crusader against anti-Semitism, particularly in the ranks of Britain's Labour Party.
In 2018, he warned that many of Britain's Jews were considering leaving the country because of anti-Semitism.
Sacks told the BBC that for the first time in the 362 years Jews have been in Britain, many questioned whether it was safe to raise children there.
He singled out then-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn − who last week was suspended from the party − for failing to address anti-Semitic attitudes in the main opposition party, saying Corbyn would pose a danger as prime minister unless he expressed "clear remorse" for past statements.
Sacks said, "When people hear the kind of language that has been coming out of Labour, that's been brought to the surface among Jeremy Corbyn's earlier speeches, they cannot help but feel an existential threat."
