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University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3PA
28 Cornwall Ave, London N3 1LG, UK
Rabbi Lionel Blue
(January 6, 1930 - December 19, 2016) was born in the East End of London on 6 February, 1930, the only son of a master tailor. Blue was discharged from the army after a nervous breakdown brought on by anxiety over his homosexuality. Blue read history at Oxford and Semitics at London University before being ordained as a rabbi in 1960. Between 1960 and 1963, he was the minister of the Settlement Synagogue and Middlesex New Synagogue. He then became the European Director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. In 1967, he began a long-term engagement as lecturer at Leo Baeck College in London. Blue was the first British rabbi to publicly declare his homosexuality and published Godly and Gay in 1981.
Rabbi Lionel blue has become widely known in the U.K. as a broadcaster, journalist, cook and author. His combination of wit, humor, humility and compassion has appealed to and entertained persons from diverse religious and spiritual backgrounds. For more than 25 years Blue has been a regular contributor to BBC Radio 4's Thought for the Day. His many books include: A Backdoor to Heaven (1985); Kitchen Blues (1986); Bolt from the Blue (1986); Tales of Body and Soul (1995); My Affair with Christianity (1999) Sun, Sand and Soul (1999) and Kindred Spirits (1999). His autobiography, Hitchhiking to Heaven, was published by Hodder & Stoughton General in 2004.
Blue's autobiography tells of his three long-term male partners. He met his current partner Jim in 1981 by answering a personal advertisement in Gay Times. Blue used to share his house with his mother, Hetty, who lived until she was 93. She and her sister had the ground floor, while Lionel and Jim had upstairs. And did Hetty and Jim get on? "Yes," he says, "although she was very manipulative. When Jim came home she'd say: 'Hard day at work, Jim?' And he'd say: 'Yes.' So she'd say: 'Tired, Jim?' And he'd say: 'Yes.' So she'd say: 'Feel like a cup of tea, Jim?' And he'd say: 'Yes.' So she'd say: 'Make me one, too.'"
They lived together in a home in Finchley until Jim's death in 2014. Blue died on December 19, 2016.
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