The Board of Deputies is on course to honour President Phil Rosenberg’s commitment to ring-fence a budget of £100,000 for the regions.
Treasurer Ben Crowne announced the news during a statement on the Board’s finances for 2025 at its first regional plenary meeting since Covid, held at the Manchester Maccabi centre.
President Rosenberg and the new Honorary Officer team have prioritised engagement with the regions as part of their Board Plan for the next triennium, with the Board President announcing that he had already made 13 regional visits since taking up the post in June, with visits to Newcastle-Gateshead, Nottingham, Wales and Northern Ireland in the works. Vice President Jeremy Michelson, who represents Manchester’s Stenecourt Synagogue, noted that 20 per cent of the Board’s staff are now based in Manchester, giving it one of the biggest presences of any national organisation in the city.
Indeed, President Rosenberg has spent the preceding Shabbat in South Manchester, spending Friday Night with the Yeshurun Synagogue, Shabbat morning with Menorah Synagogue and Motzei Shabbat with Bowdon Synagogue.
The well-attended meeting, with Deputies traelling from around the UK, was addressed by Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, and included a collection for Mitzvah Day and an exhibition on the work of Maccabi GB.
The Deputies voted in two new member organisations, JNetics and HIAS-JCORE, the latter of which had been voted down in a previous triennium, under different organisational leadership. With this, and the recent rapprochement between the Board and the Campaign Against Antisemitism, President Rosenberg noted that the Board was living up to the new Honorary Officers’ ambition to “make the community more united, inclusive and outward-looking”.
The meeting held a minute’s silence in honour of Rabbi Zvi Kogan, who was found murdered in the United Arab Emirates.
Following the meeting, President Phil Rosenberg said, “I am delighted that we are fulfilling our commitment to the regions by being a truly national organisation, offering genuine support in cash and kind. We are not the Board of Deputies of London Jews. We are the Board of Deputies of British Jews, as our dynamic programme, including this weekend in Manchester, is showing”.