For prolific author, rabbi and British Lord Jonathan Sacks, being Jewish is much more than a loose cultural or geographic affiliation. It is what defines his identity and what gives him a sense of his place in this vast world, the renowned rabbi explained in a beautifully illustrated video released for the Jewish High Holidays.
Sacks' London-based office partnered with White Animation, an Israeli graphics company, to bring the rabbi's reflection to life. The video, entitled "Why I am a Jew," came out on Sept. 9 and aims to inspire the Jewish community as it observes the High Holidays. Dan Sacker, who works for the office of Sacks, explained in an email to The Huffington Post:
We decided to release the video in the run-up to Rosh Hashanah because the High Holidays (Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur) is traditionally the time of year in the Jewish calendar when Jews around the world are asking themselves some of the toughest and deepest questions: about their faith, life, relationship, etc.
The video's script, adapted from Sacks’s 2000 book Radical Then, Radical Now, aims to "capture the essence" of the Jewish faith in an engaging way, Sacks told HuffPost.
“There is so much to love about our Jewish faith, yet in today’s increasingly complex world, it is sometimes easy for people, particularly younger generations, to lose sight of the reasons why it is a special gift to be a member of this eternal people," the rabbi said. "Above all, I wanted to inspire Jews around the world to strengthen their connections to each other and to their heritage and faith.”
Watch the video above.
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Jewish Prayer
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Jewish rabbis and students prepare to conduct a passover ceremony in Kathmandu on March 25, 2013. Jewish people traveled from across Asia to celebrate Passover Seder together in Nepal, which organizers are calling the biggest such event in the world. (PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A member of the liberal religious group Women of the Wall wears phylacteries as she prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on April 11, 2013 marking the first day of the Jewish month of Iyar. Five members of the Women of the Wall organisation were detained by police in the midst of the liberal group's monthly prayer at the Western Wall, after covering themselves with a prayer shawl in contradiction to the holy site's custom. (GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(03 of27)
An Ethiopian Jewish man prays during the Sigd holiday marking the desire for 'return to Jerusalem', as they celebrate from a hilltop in Jerusalem, on November 14, 2012. Sigd used to mark the aspirations of Ethiopians Jews to go to Jerusalem. Today Sigd is celebrated in the holy city with thousands of Ethiopians from all over Israel congregating to pray together, led by their religious leaders, the 'Kessim' who recites prayers while they pray overlooking the old city of Jerusalem. (GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(04 of27)
Members of the Jewish community offer their prayers on Place de la Bastille as they attend a silent march to pay tribute to the victims of the Toulouse school shooting, during a night time vigil on March 19, 2012 in Paris, France. Four people, including three children, have been killed and others injured after a gunman opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse as parents dropped their children off for morning classes. (Photo by Franck Prevel/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(05 of27)
A Jewish boy prays in the Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian resort island of Djerba at the start of a three-day pilgrimage on April 26, 2013. Pilgrims arrived at Tunisia's Ghriba synagogue, the oldest in Africa, expressing hope that this year would mark a turning point for the ritual despite a rise in Islamist unrest since the 2011 revolution. (FETHI BELAID/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(06 of27)
An Ethiopian Jewish woman prays during the Sigd holiday marking the desire for 'return to Jerusalem', as they celebrate from a hilltop in Jerusalem, on November 14, 2012. Sigd used to mark the aspirations of Ethiopians Jews to go to Jerusalem. Today Sigd is celebrated in the holy city with thousands of Ethiopians from all over Israel congregating to pray together, led by their religious leaders, the 'Kessim' who recites prayers while they pray overlooking the old city of Jerusalem. (GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(07 of27)
Members of the liberal religious group Women of the Wall wearing 'Tallit' traditional Jewish prayer shawls for men pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on April 11, 2013 marking the first day of the Jewish month of Iyar. Five members of the Women of the Wall organisation were detained by police in the midst of the liberal group's monthly prayer at the Western Wall, after covering themselves with a prayer shawl in contradiction to the holy site's custom. (GALI TIBBON/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(08 of27)
A Jewish man holding a snow-covered umbrella prays at the Western Wall in the old city of Jerusalem on January 10, 2013. Jerusalem was transformed into a winter wonderland after heavy overnight snowfall turned the Holy City and much of the region white, bringing hordes of excited children onto the streets. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(09 of27)
In this Nov. 11, 2010 file photo, Rabbi Menachem Froman, foreground, prays with Muslim worshippers during a joint Muslim-Jewish prayer for rain near a water spring in the West Bank village of Walajeh. Rabbi Menachem Froman, an Israeli settler known for his efforts to promote coexistence between Arabs and Jews, died Monday Feb. 4, 2013, after a long illness. He was 68. (AP Photo/Nasser Shiyoukhi, File) (credit:AP)
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Member of the religious group 'Women of the Wall,' during a prayer marking the first day of the Jewish month of Iyar at the Western Wall on April 11, 2013 in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel. Five members of the organisation 'Women of the Wall' were detained by police during the group's monthly prayer at the Western Wall, after covering themselves with prayer shawls in contradiction to the holy site's custom. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
(11 of27)
Bnei Menashe Jewish community people pray in a Synagogue, during a prayer ceremony, before they leaves for for Israel from Churachandpur, in India's northeastern state of Manipur Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012. The Jews from India's northeastern state of Manipur are known as Bnei Menashe and claim to be descendants of one the 10 lost tribes of Israel banished to India in the eighth century B.C. An Israeli chief rabbi recognized them as a lost tribe in 2005 and about 1,700 moved to Israel before the Israeli government stopped giving them visas. The government recently reversed that policy and about 50 of the 7,200 remaining in India were heading to the Jewish state. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath) (credit:AP)
(12 of27)
Members of the religious group 'Women of the Wall,' during a prayer marking the first day of the Jewish month of Iyar at the Western Wall on April 11, 2013 in Jerusalem's Old City, Israel. Five members of the organisation 'Women of the Wall' were detained by police during the group's monthly prayer at the Western Wall, after covering themselves with prayer shawls in contradiction to the holy site's custom. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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An Israeli soldier prays in front of the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem's Old City, on January 21, 2013. (AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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A Jewish bride prays ahead of her wedding on Aug.17, 2011 near the Jewish Settlement of Migron in the West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Rabbi Mamou reads a holy book during the annual Jewish pilgrimage at the Ghriba synagogue in the resort of Djerba, Tunisia, Friday April 26, 2013. The pilgrimage to the synagogue commemorates the April 11, 2002 deadly attack on the synagogue that killed 21 people, including 14 German tourists. (AP Photo/Hassene Dridi) (credit:AP)
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Jewish Indians carry their new Sefer Torah during its installation ceremony at the Magen Abraham Synagogue in Ahmedabad on Sept. 9, 2012. The new Torah was given as a gift to the Magen Abraham Synagogue on its 78th Anniversary from donors from Israel and India. There are some 130 Jewish Community members in Ahmedabad. (SAM PANTHAKY/AFP/GettyImages) (credit:Getty Images)
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Covered in prayer shawls, ultra-Orthodox Jewish men of the Cohanim priestly caste participate in a blessing during the Jewish holiday of Passover in Jerusalem, in front of the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem's Old City, Thursday, March 28, 2013. The Passover holiday celebrates the biblical story of the Israelites' escape from slavery and exodus from Egypt. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) (credit:AP)
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Hasids pray in the small Ukrainian city of Uman, some 200 km (120 miles) south of Kiev on Sept. 9, 2010. About 24,000 of followers of Rabbi Nachman from around the world flocked to the Uman to pay homage to their spiritual leader and celebrate the start of the New Year at his grave. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Jews pray while marking Rosh Hashanah in Prospect Park during a traditional Tashlich ceremony on September 29, 2011 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Jews traditionally go to a flowing body of water and symbolically 'throw away' their sins by praying and tossing bread crumbs into the water. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Ultra-Orthodox Jews dance during a ceremony at the grave site of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai in the northern Israeli village of Meron on April 28, 2013 at the start of the day-long holiday of Lag Baomer that commemorates the Jewish scholar's death. Thousands of religious Jews light large bonfires all night long and visit the shrine of Bar Yochai, one of the most prominent sages in Jewish history, during the holiday. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Israeli soldiers wearing 'Tallit' (prayer shawls) and 'Tefilin' (phylacteries) perform morning prayers at an artillery battery deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border on Nov. 22, 2012, a day after a cease fire was declared between Israel and Hamas. (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man prays on the beach in the coastal city of Tel Aviv during the ritual of 'Tashlich' on Sept. 24, 2012. Tashlich is a ritual during which believers cast their sins into the water and the fish, and it is performed one day before the Day of Atonement or Yom Kippur. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/GettyImages) (credit:Getty Images)
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A Jewish immigrant prays in the terminal hall after arrival from the United States at Ben Gurion airport on August 14, 2012 near Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Jewish worshippers pray outside Joseph's Tomb as hundreds of faithful mark the anniversary of the biblical Joseph's death, on July 4, 2011 in Nablus, West Bank. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Members of the Jewish community pray in a synagogue on March 11, 2011 in Birobidjan City, administrative center of the Jewish autonomous region, Russia. (ANNA YEROSHENKO/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Jews (R) and Muslims (L) join a prayer calling for rain on November 11, 2010 in the West Bank village of Walajeh near Bethlehem. The amounts of rainfall in Israel and Palestinian territories have been lower than the perennial average in five of the past six years, resulting in an acute crisis in the region's water supply system.(HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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Jews offer prayers in the small Ukrainian city of Uman, some 200 kms south of Kiev on Sept. 9, 2010. About 24 000 of followers of Rabbi Nachman from around the world flocked to the Uman to pay homage to their spiritual leader and celebrate the start of the New Year at his grave. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty Images) (credit:Getty Images)
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