On Wednesday February 3rd, The Idea School was honored and privileged to have Ms. Gila Sacks, daughter of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, zt”l, speak to the students about her father, his life and his legacy. The sophomores and juniors will be embarking on a video project aimed to share Rabbi Sacks’ learning with high school students. It was incredibly moving to hear Ms. Sacks, an articulate and accomplished civil servant in the UK, describe her father and his work.

As part of their course work this semester, the students will be studying Rabbi Sacks’s work “A Letter in the Scroll: Understanding Our Jewish Identity and Exploring the Legacy of the World’s Oldest Religion.” Rabbi Sacks believed that the world was not inevitable. It is the way it is because people do certain things, and so if things can be one way, they can be another. Racism, terrorism and injustice are collections of actions people take, and so we can take different actions. If the law can be one way, it can be another. That belief, Ms. Sacks concluded, places huge responsibility on us.