Changing their game
PLANS FOR an online hub of Jewish life and a site that co-ordinates charitable giving were among the initial results of a scheme designed to groom potential leaders of British Jewry.
The Gamechangers project — run by the Jewish Leadership Council’s training division, Lead — aimed to develop participants for senior leadership roles.
An audience at a celebration evening to mark the end of the inaugural programme were told of plans for an app or website that could bring together all aspects of Jewish life in Britain in one place.
The team of 16 “gamechangers” spent more than 18 months meeting leading figures from business, politics and the arts, and travelled to Israel where they held discussions with Knesset members and rabbinical leaders.
The potential leaders, aged in their 30s and 40s, were selected from across the religious spectrum.
Marie van der Zyl told the audience she had little communal involvement before joining the programme. But earlier this year she was elected as a vicepresident of the Board of Deputies.
Addressing the group, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis cited both the Rugby World Cup and Moses in his explana- tion of the importance of calculated risk in leadership.
JLC chairman, Mick Davis, said he hoped the participants would go on to give their expertise to Jewish organisations and not look to gain status from communalleadership.SirMicksaidpeople should “not be cynical” about those “who want to lead the community”.
The celebration night was held at Pentland Brands headquarters in Finchley, north London, last Thursday.
Gamechangers chair Miles Webber said it had been “the most extraordinary leadership programme our community has ever attempted to offer”.