Lady Amélie Jakobovits was born into a family of rabbinic royalty. Her marriage to Immanuel Jakobovits, who went on to become Chief Rabbi of England, solidified her role as a community activist. In honor of her first yahrtzeit, Family First spoke with close family and friends to gain a personal portrait of the figure affectionately known by many simply as “Lady J.”
Lady Jakobovits was born Amélie Munk in 1928 in Ansbach Bavaria. She was the daughter of the illustrious Rav Elie Munk one of the spiritual leaders of European Jewry and author of the influential books The Call of the Torah and The World of Prayer. Her mother was the daughter of Nathan Goldberger head of the kehillah of Nuremberg.
The spiritual legacy her parents bequeathed her was something that Lady Amélie never forgot.
“Her parents influenced her life hugely” recounted Mrs. Esther Pearlman Lady Jakobovits’s eldest daughter who is the principal of the Menorah High School for Girls in northwest London. “They taught her a great simchas hachayim a deep-rooted yiras Shamayim and a bounty of emunah and bitachon. That was what guided her all her life — even her great-grandchildren have inherited this from her.”
But Lady Amélie’s bequest was not only the spiritual continuation of her parents’ values. She also carried with her the lessons of a Holocaust survivor.
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