America, England and Israel - he loved all three and he rendered all three valuable service. But it was Israel which aroused Sidney's deepest hopes and fears. It was through the IDT that I, like countless others, first got to know Sidney, and it was important to him that this unique gathering should include Gentile voices as well as Jewish ones. His witty and charming book, Funny, You Don't Look Jewish, was designed to explain Jewish life and humour to non-Jews - an impossible task, you might suppose, but nothing daunted his irrepressible optimism.

Sidney understood that Israel, like the United States, is essential not only for the survival of the Jewish people, but also for the survival of Western civilisation. He was tireless in defence of Israel, boundlessly grateful to Israel's friends and - despite his sunny temperament - impatient with Israel's critics, at any rate if he judged their motives to be malign. It was a source of great sadness to Sidney that the atmosphere in Britain, which had been sympathetic to Israel when he arrived here in the 1960s, has become steadily more hostile to the Jewish state.

In an essay last August for Standpoint, which he did so much to encourage, Sidney went so far as to suggest that Zionism was now more trouble than it was worth, and that the term should be dropped. When he could not persuade the majority of his friends at the IDT that such a concession would be wise, it was typical of Sidney to concede defeat with a good grace.

Moral courage, wisdom and humour in the face of adversity: Sidney had plenty of all three. He was a mensch. But he also had a profound sense of the mystery and wonder of God's creation, which found eloquent expression in his translation of the Torah. When my wife and I took our children to visit Mount Sinai, we read to them from Sidney's version the account of how Moses received the Law. To be in that awe-inspiring place, accompanied by the timeless Word of God, was indeed a sublime experience. Sidney had a mind that was always open to the sublime. Like Samuel, Sidney said "Yes" to God's call; and he went on saying "Yes" throughout his life.