Lionel Blue

Background

Born in the East End of London, Blue was the son of a master tailor.

Education

Balliol College; University of London.

Career

He was the first British rabbi publicly to declare his homosexuality. He is best known for his longstanding work with the media, most notably his wry and gentle sense of humour on Thought for the Day on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4"s Today programme. In 1998, Blue was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Open University.

He is also honorary doctor of Divinity and Fellow of Grey College, Durham.

He is an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire). He entered Hendon County School at sixth form level, following education in the East End and a year out of school at age 16–17.

His history master at Hendon told a later sixth-form group, "Blue"s essays were unlike any I have ever seen from anyone else. They didn"t give facts, but were disquisitions on historical philosophy!"

Blue read History at Balliol College, Oxford and Semitics at the University of London before being ordained as a rabbi in 1960.

He spent time in the Army but was discharged after a nervous breakdown brought on by anxiety over his homosexuality.

Blue regained his faith while at the University of Oxford, when he found some resolution to severe personal conflicts regarding his sexuality at a Quaker meeting. He also found Victor Gollancz"s A Year of Grace helpful during this time, and finally became one of the first two students at Leo Baeck College for training rabbis in 1956. Between 1960 and 1963, Blue was the minister of the Settlement Synagogue and Middlesex New Synagogue.

In 1967, he began a long-term engagement as lecturer at Leo Baeck College in London.

He lives in Finchley, north London. Blue was the first British rabbi publicly to affirm his homosexual orientation and published Godly and Gay in 1981.

He has been openly homosexual since the 1960s and has had three male live-in partners. He met his most recent partner, Jim, in 1981 through a personal advertisement in Gay Times.

However, his memoirs reveal that he considered marrying Joanna Hughes, a student whom he met whilst they were both students at Oxford in 1950.

He is an occasional guest speaker of the Jewish Gay and Lesbian Group. He is also a patron of Kairos in Soho, an organisation for gay people. Foreign more than twenty-five years, Blue was a regular contributor to British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4"s Thought for the Day.

In 2006, a return trip to his childhood home in London"s East End to mark the 350th anniversary of Jewish life in Britain was the subject of an evocative audioslideshow on the British Broadcasting Corporation News website.

At a personal appearance at the Fairfield Hall, Croydon in December 2009, Lionel Blue asserted he would be back on Mondays in Thought Foreign the Day on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4, in January 2010. He was diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 57.

However, he has to date successfully controlled his disorder with medication. During an operation in 1997, a surgeon discovered a tumour which tests proved to be malignant.

He went on to receive radiotherapy and hormonal treatment to reduce any further growth.

He has also been diagnosed as having Parkinson"s Disease.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Kindred Spirits: A Year of Readings

Politics

He lost his faith at the age of five after petitionary prayer failed to remove Hitler and Oswald Mosley. He then turned to the Marxism of his uncle.