The President of the Board of Deputies has pledged to push forward plans for a British Jewish Culture Month, with a launch in 2026.

Addressing a large audience during Limmud Festival, Phil Rosenberg said: “It’s not right that in the public eye, when it comes to learning about the Jewish community, we have Holocaust Memorial Day, and the only compulsory Jewish history topic on the National Curriculum is the Holocaust.

“It’s important that the British public not only know about dead Jews in Europe but also living Jews in the UK and their contribution,” said Rosenberg while in conversation with educator Clive Lawton. “The Jewish community does the most amazing things.”

Board of Deputies President Phil Rosenberg (right) in conversation with Clive Lawton at Limmud Festival (Photo: Avi Grant)

Speaking afterwards to the JC, Rosenberg said that a month in the British calendar focusing on Jewish culture would “help others understand us and inoculate people against the virus of antisemitism. It would also help our community feel better.”

Explaining his vision for the cultural fixture, he said that he would like to see each synagogue displaying the Board of Deputies’ Jewish Living Experience exhibition, which currently circulates round different communities, and for Jewish cultural centres such as JW3 and the Manchester Jewish Museum to play a central role.

“While there are serious challenges of antisemitism that we need to address, there are also key components of the Jewish story that we need to celebrate and share with others.”

A passionate advocate of interfaith work, Rosenberg said that he had had many positive experiences when sharing aspects of his faith with non-Jewish people. “Whenever I’ve done school tours to synagogues and I’ve opened the Ark, kids have been blown away, and local councillors always enjoy kiddish and say how warm the community is.”

A pupil at the Board of Deputies' Jewish Living Experience exhibition (Photo: The Board of Deputies)

One way of conveying Jewish culture to others was through something he has coined “Friday night dinner diplomacy”. For Rosenberg, this had included inviting an Arab diplomat to his Seder night earlier this year, he said.

“We need to ask ourselves: ‘How can we safely keep people in and not just keep people out? I love the Jewish community, and I believe that if we invite people in, they will love us too.”

Rosenberg’s comments came a few days after he and other Jewish leaders had met Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, who told them it was “vital that we celebrate the enormous contribution made by our Jewish community”.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy (right) with Board of Deputies president Phil Rosenberg (Image: Board of Deputies).

In a wide-ranging and frequently entertaining interview with Lawton, Rosenberg recalled how his parents had decided to send each of their three children to three different schools, “so they would have three sets of teachers to complain to”.

As a student, he had harboured aspirations to become either a diplomat or a lawyer, but instead started working at the Board, firstly as its interfaith officer and later as its head of public affairs.

Rosenberg, 38, spoke fondly about launching his campaign a year ago at Limmud Festival, in a bid to become the Board’s youngest ever president, with Lawton teasing: “You don’t usually go straight from bar mitzvah to President of the Board.”

Since being elected in May, Rosenberg has been working at changing the culture of the Board, encouraging more women and people under 35 to put themselves forward for leadership roles.

Following the election of an all-male team of honorary officers, he launched a gender equality plan, leading to the introduction of two independent female chairs, former MP Dame Louise Ellman and Karen Newman, who also chairs Liberal Judaism. More recently, five women were elected to the executive committee, making it completely gender balanced for the first time in its 264-year history.

Rosenberg has also relaxed plenary sessions, starting each meeting with a kiddush. “Deputies might get angry, but at least they won’t get ‘hangry’,” he joked.