Richards had a long and distinguished career within the Progressive Movement, and he was instrumental in formulating the South African Progressive Minhag (custom).
Richards was born in 1913 in Liverpool, England. After years of study in a Yeshiva, he was accepted by the British Orthodox Beth Din in 1935 as a minister. He took up a post in Bangor, North Wales, and then in Bolton, England, under the title of reverend. When war broke out in 1939, he volunteered to serve as a chaplain in the British forces.
When the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was liberated, he was posted to the camp to be of assistance to survivors.
"It was a grim experience, but also uplifting, even if all I could do was to give a comforting word," Richards said in a 2003 article about his memoirs.
After the war, he took up chaplaincy duties in Germany, which involved visiting Jewish soldiers in north Germany.
"In 1946, as my demobilisation was approaching, I faced the problem as to my future. As an officer in the army, I had experienced a different way of life. My work among the survivors had completely broadened my outlook."
He answered an advertisement in the London Jewish Chronicle for a position as assistant to Rabbi MC Weiler, founding rabbi of the Progressive Jewish movement in South Africa. Rabbi Weiler visited him in Germany and persuaded him to join the South African community.
On being discharged from the British army in November 1946, Richards left for Johannesburg and his wife, Lily, and daughter, Monica, followed some months later. On his arrival, he took charge of the Cheder and day-to-day matters affecting the members at Temple Israel in Hillbrow.
"Rabbi Weiler did a great deal of travelling during those years and I was therefore very active," said Richards. "I was involved in running services and dealing with members over the four or five years I was there."
In 1951, Richards accepted a post in Port Elizabeth, where he served as reverend of the newly-established community for a few years. Lily passed away suddenly in December 1951. Not long after, he decided to make Aliyah with his daughter, but this didn't work out as planned, so he returned to South Africa. He then joined the Cape Town Progressive Congregation as director of Education of the Hebrew and religion classes, where he met and married his second wife, Faye.
In 1966, Richards decided to take a Sabbatical year and went to study at the Leo Baeck Rabbinical College in London. He was ordained as a rabbi in mid-1967 and returned to South Africa. His first rabbinic position was for Temple David in Durban, where he remained for a total of 27 years. Sadly, Faye passed away in Durban in 1998.
Richards retired in 1986, but four years later, he was brought out of retirement to serve for a few more years. He retired again in 1994, but less than a year later, the congregation pleaded with him to return. Richards eventually retired in 2002 when the community finally found a new rabbi. On this retirement, he was appointed Rabbi Emeritus of Temple David.
"Rabbi Richards served the Durban Jewish community and the South African Progressive Movement with love and dedication for the best part of 60 years," says Steve Lurie, chairperson of the South African Union for Progressive Judaism (SAUPJ). "We will miss his insight, his knowledge and his commitment to the movement."
Rabbi Richards is survived by his daughter, Monica, Faye's daughter, Margot, her husband, Vivian, and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Rabbi Isaac Richards ... served the Durban community with love and dedication for 60 years