In 2003, we established an annual lecture in the memory of Sir Isaiah Berlin, the philosopher who spent much of his life at Oxford University and who was a long-standing member of the Synagogue. His family’s membership had commenced when his parents joined in the 1920’s and he made regular annual visits from Oxford to the Synagogue for the Yom Kippur services.
The Synagogue valued very highly this affiliation and therefore, the Synagogue was the natural setting for the most dignified and moving memorial service held when Sir Isaiah passed on. The service was conducted by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in the presence of a packed Synagogue. Those present heard a moving tribute from Lord Annan and music appreciated by Sir Isaiah was played by, amongst others, Isaac Stern and Alfred Brendel.
It was against this background that it was decided that it was fitting for Sir Isaiah’s association with the Synagogue to be celebrated by a more lasting memorial and Lady Berlin and the members of his family agreed to the Synagogue organising an annual lecture to be given in his memory. Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks gave the first lecture and, as the below list shows, he has been followed annually by speakers of great distinction.
Previous Isaiah Berlin Lectures
2024 – Reid Hoffman – Superagency: Empowering Humanity in the Age of AI
2023/4 – Sir Anthony Seldon – “Has the job of Prime Minister become impossible? Can the next PM possibly succeed?”
2022 – Professor Michael Sandel – “The Tyranny of Merit: What’s become of the common good?”
2021 – Baroness Hale of Richmond – “Is there anything wrong with rights?”
2020 – Professor Philippe Sands QC – “East and West, to the Ratline, and Beyond: On Memory and Identity.”
2019 – Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown – “Challenges of a fast-changing global society.”
2018 – Professor Margaret MacMillan – “A Century Later: Does the Great War Matter in the Present?”
2017 – Ambassador Daniel Taub – “100 years on: Lessons from the Balfour Declaration.”
2016 – Lord Daniel Finkelstein – “Does history have an arrow? (And if it does where is it pointing?)”
2015 – Sir Brian Leveson – “Security and Justice.”
2014 – Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt – “Remembrance in the 21st Century: How will we remember when everyone who has something to remember is gone?”
2013 – Lord Woolf – “Conflict or Co-existence? Interfaith Relations and the Rule of Law.”
2012 – Professor Simon Schama – Professor Simon Schama – “Egypt and Israel: Two Kinds of Home.”
2011 – Professor Vernon Bogdanor – “The Stop Marked Independence – Self-Determination and the Rights of Minorities.”
2010 – Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams – “Faith and Enlightenment: Friends or Foes?”
2009 – Efraim Halevy – “ Diplomacy and intelligence in the Middle East: How and why are the two inexorably intertwined?”
2008 – Baroness Helena Kennedy QC – “Law – the first pillar”
2007 – Trevor Phillips – “Keeping the Faith – Integration in 21st century Britain”
2006 – Nick Cohen – “What’s Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way”
2005 – Sir Martin Gilbert – “Churchill and Parliamentary Democracy”
2004 – Lord Leon Brittan – “Europe: Past, Present and Future.”
2003 – Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks – “The Politics of Freedom”
