17 October 2006
The Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth, Sir Jonathan Sacks, will deliver a public lecture on closed and open belief systems at Monash University on Friday, 20 October.
The lecture has been facilitated by Monash's Australian Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilisation.
Rabbi Sacks is regarded as one the world's leading exponents of Judaism. He has been Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth since 1991 - the sixth rabbi to hold this post since it was established in 1845.
Rabbi Sacks has had a distinguished academic career. He is currently Visiting Professor of Theology at Kings' College London. He was awarded a knighthood in 2005.
Rabbi Sacks will be in Melbourne for five days. He last visited Australia in 1997.
The Associate Director of the Australian Centre for the Study of Jewish Civilisation, Ms Melanie Landau, said Rabbi Sacks' one-hour lecture would provide a valuable insight into the Chief Rabbi's approach.
"The Chief Rabbi is one of the most remarkable figures in Jewish life today and a vital voice in the expression of religious humanism," Ms Landau said.
He has written that: "Politics turns into virtue what religions often see as a vice - the fact that we do not all think alike, that we have conflicting interests, that we see the world through different eyes. Politics knows what religion sometimes forgets, that the imposition of truth by force and the suppression of dissent by power is the end of freedom and a denial of human dignity."
Lecture notes
What: 'Closed and Open belief systems': address by the Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth, Sir Jonathan Sacks
When: Friday, 20 October, 1-2 pm
Where: R6 (Rotunda building), Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton.
For further information about Rabbi Sacks, please visit the the website of the Chief Rabbi.
For interviews or further information contact Ms Karen Stichtenoth, Media Communications, on +61 3 9905 1253.
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