Chief Rabbi Jacobs

Panic! First there was a virus or something like that on my laptop, and after it had been professionally removed by my trusty ‘first port of call for technical issues, Avi’, my mobile phone has given up the ghost. So, since yesterday evening, I’ve only been reachable on my landline number, or via email or

After setting foot on home soil again at 8:00 am on Tuesday morning, I was at the Hilton Hotel in The Hague that evening for the celebration of Azerbaijan’s Independence Day on 28 May. The ambassador is a good friend of mine, so I felt I simply had to be there. Apart from that, and

Diary of the Chief Rabbi, 4 May, early morning. It has been a quiet few days for me since my last diary entry. I haven’t had ‘Free Palestine’ hurled at me any more often than usual. Although the world is in turmoil, I was in Arcen on Sunday. For the sake of convenience, I assume

Actually, I had decided to skip writing my diary for a day because of an almost tsunami of recommendations to take it easy. After Montenegro and a very tiring journey due to annoying flight connections, I am now in Krakow with more than 130 educators from France, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, Germany, Italy, Belgium, England,

The annual conference of shluchim – emissaries of the Rebbe – has come to an end. More than six thousand rabbis gathered to inspire each other. The gathering was impressive. What made the biggest impression on me was the rabbi who lost both his legs as a soldier but continued with great spirit from a

Diary 5 November 2025 Since my previous diary of Sunday quite a few things have happened again.It is almost impossible to keep up with what is happening in the world and also just here in our country. Add to that that Blouma and I flew to Krakow on Sunday evening after our meeting with the

Diary Sept. 25, outgoing Rosh Hashanah, A normal rabbi is busy preparing his speeches for the synagogue services on Erev (the eve of) Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In addition, he will assist his wife with the preparation of the elaborate and festive Yom Tov meals, which will of course be attended by guests.

The Alter Rebbe, the founder of Chabad Hasidism, the movement within Judaism to which I belong, was the regular weekly Baal Kore, the person who reads from the Torah. When he was not in Lyozna on the Shabbat when parsha Tawo (Deuteronomy 27) was read, as it will be this coming Shabbat, his son, who

The Sidra for the coming Shabbat begins with the commandment to “appoint judges and law enforcement officers at all your gates.” When I follow the news, look around me, and see how our society is threatened by anarchy, I can only say that this ancient Jewish Torah commandment may be old, but it is far

The last few days I have been a full-time sjnorrer. A sjnorrer sounds exciting, but it’s just a beggar. In modern times, we no longer have sjnorrer, because begging is not proper, but in the Jewish world we are referred to as fundraisers. And because more than two hundred children have registered for the Chabad

Binyomin, a non-Jewish politician, told me the day after the infamous PvdA-GL meeting that the PvdA-GL’s hatred of Israel affects not only the Jewish community, but also me, your non-Jewish Dutch fellow citizen. In 1948, the State of Israel was established as a refuge for Jews, survivors of the gas chambers. We, the Dutch, had

I have just returned home from a lecture given by the former director of the National Monument Camp Amersfoort about the history of the camp, before and after the war. I went there with the expectation and hope of finally hearing the secret of Camp Amersfoort. Why was there such enormous opposition from the government

There really are people who don’t like me, and one of these non-fans was going around saying that I swim in my spare time and that’s why I write my diaries, as a kind of occupational therapy, just to keep myself busy. I don’t know exactly what is true and what isn’t, but I’ve been

After my recent visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau with more than two hundred and fifty European rabbis, I was asked the (usual) question of how it had affected me. My (usual) answer was: not much! My visit to the Hamas Tunnel replica in Eindhoven also left me cold. Am I insensitive, I wondered, is there something wrong

From Sunday evening until last night, Tuesday evening, 11:00 p.m., I did not read De Telegraaf or RD, did not listen to the radio, and did not touch my laptop because of Shavuot. And what happened? A cabinet crisis! Could my presence, I almost asked myself, have prevented the fall of the cabinet? And if

It is not inconceivable that you could be given the wrong medication. At three o’clock on Tuesday afternoon, I arrived in Budapest to finish a job that I had flown in for several times. Once again, it became clear to me that (almost) every problem can be solved if both parties essentially respect each other