the Becket Fund\u2019s Canterbury Medal for his role in the defence of religious liberty in the public square\u2014the same honor bestowed on such notables as Elie Wiesel, Charles Colson, Archbishop Charles Chaput, and IOF\u2019s own honorary board member, President Dallin H. Oaks.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\nRabbi Sacks was also an eminent biblical scholar, renowned public speaker, and prolific author of 37 books, including Morality<\/em>, published just months before his passing on November 7, 2020. According to NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt, \u201cIf the prophets of the Hebrew Bible came back to guide liberal democracies and anxious citizens through this difficult time, but first they studied modern history and social science, this is the book they would write for us.\u201d Distilling the wisdom of Rabbi Sacks\u2019 remarkable lifetime of learning and service, the book offers a sure guide to a faltering world. \u201cA free society is a moral achievement,\u201d he explains, and the essence of morality is \u201ca concern for the welfare of others\u201d along with \u201ca willingness to ask not just what is good for me but what is good for \u2018all of us together.\u2019 It is about \u2018Us,\u2019 not \u2018Me\u2019; about \u2018We,\u2019 not \u2018I.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nUnfortunately, continues Rabbi Sacks, \u201cthere has been too much individualism and too little of the moral bonds that lie at the heart of friendship, family, and community\u201d\u2014bonds which \u201cmake us larger than we would be if we focused on self-interest alone.\u201d And here he waxes personal in telling of the experience that changed his life. \u201cAs I write these words, Elaine and I are looking forward to our golden wedding anniversary. In the TED Talk I gave in 2017, I spoke about our first meeting. It took place in Cambridge, England, where I was a philosophy student\u2026 One day early in my final year I saw, across a college courtyard, a girl who was everything I was not. She smiled, she radiated sunshine, she was full of joy. It took me three weeks to put aside metaphysics and say, \u2018Let\u2019s get married.\u2019 Forty-nine years, three children, and nine grandchildren later, I know it was the best decision of my life, because it\u2019s the people not like us who make us grow. Marriage is the supreme embodiment of openness to otherness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also the facilitator of civilization itself, he insists in an impassioned plea. \u201cThe family\u2014man, woman, and child\u2014is not one lifestyle choice among many. It is the best means we have yet discovered for nurturing future generations and enabling children to grow in a matrix of stability and love. It is where we learn the delicate choreography of relationship and how to handle the inevitable conflicts within any human group. It is where we first take the risk of giving and receiving love. It is where one generation passes on its values to the next, ensuring the continuity of a civilization. For any society, the family is the crucible of its future, and for the sake of our children\u2019s future, we must be its defenders.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rabbi Sacks\u2019 clarion call is part of a chorus of voices by religious leaders such as Pope Francis, who declared, \u201cEvery threat to the family is a threat to society itself\u2026. The future of humanity passes through the family. So protect your families! See in them your country\u2019s greatest treasure and nourish them always.\u201d Likewise President Russell M. Nelson, speaking at our World Congress of Families in Amsterdam, warned, \u201cOn all sides, the family is under attack. Many wonder if the institution is no longer needed. Our response is certain. If there is any hope for the future of nations, that hope resides in the family. Our children are our wealth; our children are our strength; our children are indeed our future!\u201d We invite you to join with IOF in answering the call of these visionary leaders as we accelerate our work at the forefront of defending the family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With the recent passing of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Judaism has lost one of its leading lights and the world has lost one of its most powerful moral voices. Described by American University Professor Akbar Ahmed as \u201cone of the great sages of the Abrahamic faiths,\u201d Rabbi Sacks was an international religious leader, philosopher, theologian, author, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":39994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","video":"","gallery":"","source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override":[{"single_blog_custom":"","sidebar":"","second_sidebar":"","share_position":"","share_float_style":"","post_date_format":"","post_date_format_custom":"","post_reading_time_wpm":"","zoom_button_out_step":"1","zoom_button_in_step":"1","number_popup_post":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"","single_post_gallery_size":""}],"trending_post_position":"","trending_post_label":"","sponsored_post_label":"","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":""},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[804,511,510,805],"tags":[427,6777],"class_list":["post-39947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-culture","category-family","category-foreground","tag-marriage","tag-rabbi-jonathan-sacks"],"yoast_head":"\n
Not \u201cI\u201d but \u201cWe\u201d: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 parting witness to the power of marriage and family - IFN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Not \u201cI\u201d but \u201cWe\u201d: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 parting witness to the power of marriage and family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With the recent passing of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Judaism has lost one of its leading lights and the world has lost one of its most powerful moral voices. Described by American University Professor Akbar Ahmed as \u201cone of the great sages of the Abrahamic faiths,\u201d Rabbi Sacks was an international religious leader, philosopher, theologian, author, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IFN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-08T20:22:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-12-08T20:31:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/rabbi-about.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1366\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"669\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"E. Douglas Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@iFamNewsEN\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"E. Douglas Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Not \u201cI\u201d but \u201cWe\u201d: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 parting witness to the power of marriage and family - IFN","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Not \u201cI\u201d but \u201cWe\u201d: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 parting witness to the power of marriage and family","og_description":"With the recent passing of Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Judaism has lost one of its leading lights and the world has lost one of its most powerful moral voices. Described by American University Professor Akbar Ahmed as \u201cone of the great sages of the Abrahamic faiths,\u201d Rabbi Sacks was an international religious leader, philosopher, theologian, author, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family","og_site_name":"IFN","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","article_published_time":"2020-12-08T20:22:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-12-08T20:31:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1366,"height":669,"url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/rabbi-about.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"E. Douglas Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_site":"@iFamNewsEN","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"E. Douglas Clark","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family"},"author":{"name":"E. Douglas Clark","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/004a3a3e14cfb4420066c3d177785019"},"headline":"Not \u201cI\u201d but \u201cWe\u201d: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 parting witness to the power of marriage and family","datePublished":"2020-12-08T20:22:42+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-08T20:31:18+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family"},"wordCount":841,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/rabbi-about.jpg","keywords":["Marriage","Rabbi Jonathan Sacks"],"articleSection":["Breaking News","Culture","Family","Foreground"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family","name":"Not \u201cI\u201d but \u201cWe\u201d: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 parting witness to the power of marriage and family - IFN","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/rabbi-about.jpg","datePublished":"2020-12-08T20:22:42+00:00","dateModified":"2020-12-08T20:31:18+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/rabbi-about.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/rabbi-about.jpg","width":1366,"height":669},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/not-i-but-we-rabbi-jonathan-sacks-parting-witness-to-the-power-of-marriage-and-family#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking News","item":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/category\/breaking-news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Not \u201cI\u201d but \u201cWe\u201d: Rabbi Jonathan Sacks\u2019 parting witness to the power of marriage and family"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","name":"IFN","description":"International Family News Network","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#organization","name":"iFamNews","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Share-logo.png","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"iFamNews"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/iFamNews","https:\/\/x.com\/iFamNewsEN"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/004a3a3e14cfb4420066c3d177785019","name":"E. Douglas Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4f01991614cc9086457280e0279d7da9c1c6dd2774eca1bf16e9e24005c6feb0?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"E. Douglas Clark"},"description":"E. Douglas Clark is an attorney and Director of UN and International Policy at the International Organization for the Family. For two decades Doug has been on the forefront of defending the family at the United Nations as a lobbyist and strategist, leading teams and consulting with policymakers in New York and around the world. His writings include the World Family Declaration and articles in The Natural Family: An International Journal of Research and Policy and Ave Maria International Law Journal. After earning MBA and JD degrees from Brigham Young University, he practiced banking law and served as director of content of the original Law.com.","url":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/author\/dclarkifamnews-com"}]}},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39947"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40002,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39947\/revisions\/40002"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ifamnews.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}