Dr. Geoffrey Wigoder, the founding editor of this newsletter, passed away suddenly in Jerusalem on 9 April 1999. During the last four years, aside from editing Dialogues, Geoffrey served as consulting editor of other publications of the Institute of the World Jewish Congress.

Geoffrey was a graduate of Trinity University in Dublin, Oxford and the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He came to Israel in 1949, together with the "Anglo-Jewish elite who went to the newly founded State of Israel… to help shape its intellectual life" as a London Times obituary noted. In Israel, Geoffrey worked variously as a director the English department of the Kol Zion Lagolah and BBC correspondent. He was the founding director of Beth Hatefusoth (the Museum of the Diapsora), the Department of Oral History at Hebrew University, and also the Speilberg Film center.

Upon the death of his Oxford mentor, Prof. Cecil Roth in 1970, Geoffrey assumed the mantle of editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Judaica. "He scoured the world for experts of the most abstruse reaches of Jewish learning. He marshaled an army of 1,800 contributors who ranged from a rabbi in Puerto Rico to a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia." as the Times obituary noted. The breadth, scope and erudition of Geoffrey's learning in so many fields, was truly immense, and the Encyclopedia is but one of his many monuments. Among his other well-known works are the Oxford Dictionary of Judaism, the Encyclopedia of the Holocaust and the English Concordance of the Bible.

Geoffrey was a pioneer in the field of inter-faith relations, and did much to foster Jewish-Christian dialogue, notably Jewish-Catholics discourse. For over twenty years he was Israeli representative of the International Jewish Committee for Inter-Religious Consultations, the official umbrella organization representing Jews to other faiths, and at the time of his dearth was the body's chairman. His prodigious scholarship on inter-faith relations, including Jewish Christian Relations Since World War II, are among the leading sources on the subject and chronicle the transformation of Christian teachings of Jews, Judaism and the State of Israel. Notably Geoffery was regular contributor to the Anglo-Catholic weekly The Tablet and two years ago delivered the Cardinal Bea lecture in London. On 2 June 1999 a memorial evening devoted to memory, documentation and dialogue was held in his honor at the Van Leer Institute sponsored by the World Jewish Congress and a number of other organization with which Geoffrey was active. Among the speakers were Geoffrey's sons Meir and Shimshon, Dr Avi Beker, Executive Director of the WJC, Profs. Dov Levin and Yehuda Bauer of the Hebrew University Dr Ron Kronish of ICCI and Dr David Rosen of the ADL. A highlight of the evening was the animated presentation of Geoffrey's sister actress Thelma Ruby who came from London, and the home movies depicting Geoffrey's childhood (including his bar mitzvah) in Leeds. Hundreds of Geoffrey's friends and colleagues attended this unforgettable event. Geoffrey's warm personality, extraordinary modesty, good humor and wise counsel will be sorely missed. He will live on in our memories and in the countless pages of his scholarship - an enduring legacy for generations to come. May his memory be a blessing.

Source : www.wjc.org.il/publications/dialogues1_8.html