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Full Description
A child in war-torn Europe, Amelie Munk fled for her life with her
mother, grandmother and younger siblings on a packed train from Paris
bound for the south of France. In unfamiliar territory near Toulouse
Amelie was told to find a bike and seek out her father, Rabbi Elie
Munk, who had joined the Foreign Legion. Yet as the threat to Jews grew
daily more ominous, the Munks became a Jewish Swiss Family Robinson,
winning love and admiration for their quiet courage, intrepid humour
and rich philosophical optimism. Yet the coup de grace came when -
minutes from Switzerland and safety - the cries of her baby brother
alerted the border guards to the presence of the terrified Jewish
family. Life changed for Amelie after the war, when, still a teenager,
she married the man destined to become the Chief Rabbi. From the
poverty of an embattled existence on the streets of Marseilles, Amelie
transformed into that rare combination - sophisticated
woman-of-the-world and Jewish revivalist - rubbing shoulders with
royalty and the political elite. Her husband, Chief Rabbi Jakobovits,
was an adviser to the Margaret Thatcher government: chosen neither for
politics nor faith, but his earthier sense of personal and social
responsibility. In her own right Amelie became a luminary of many
charities and a speaker and educator on the talmudic and moral issues
close to her heart. When Lord Jakobovits was created a Peer of the
Realm by the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, Amelie Jakobovits
became icon of another kind, and is now regarded with general affection
as Lady J.
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