The people making it happen
BY HIS own admission, Jonathan Robinson, chairman of this year’s Limmud Festival, is a latecomer to the organisation.
Whereas some previous Limmud chairs first experienced the event as a children, he did not attend a conference until seven years ago when he was 46 and “didn’t particularly enjoy it”. But persuaded by the example of diehard Limmudnik friends, he gave it another go two years later and has stuck with it ever since.
In fact, this is his second time overseeing the community’s largest annual event. He co-chaired Limmud’s conference’s catering committee in 2013, graduated to joint conference chairman the next year and is now chairing it single-handedly.
The Glaswegian-born émigré to London, who is a member of Brondesbury Park United Synagogue and who works as event organiser for Jasmine, Carmelli Bakeries’ catering arm, is “more of a behind-the-scenes” person — though you will be able to see him take the stage for the Strictly Limmud Dancing competition.
While his trio of programming chairs are all in their 20 and 30s, he is older than many of his predecessors as conference chair.
“It is a very diverse and eclectic team,” he said, “a few slightly old codgers like me — a lot of new faces and talent coming through, which is good.”
He is particularly pleased that this year’s decision to reduce the price and hours of those on the Yad scheme for 18 to 35-year-olds to volunteer at Limmud — which has resulted in a 20 per cent increase in numbers this year, after a dip in recent years, with around 225 due to participate in the scheme over the next week.
Limmud, in his view, has matured over the years and, two years from its 40th anniversary in 2020, has become “a lot more mainstream”.
That’s partly to do with the fact that the Chief Rabbi and more United Synagogues now feel comfortable attending. But also, he believes the rest of the community has caught up with Limmud and issues broached at the festival have become the subject of broader conversations
“Things that happen in the Jewish community would not have happened” were it not for Limmud, he said. Developments like the JW3 centre and the cross-communal secondary school JCoSS, he believes, were inspired by it.
While chairing the festival is like a “full-time job,” he said, second-time round it’s “very rewarding — there are none of the surprises you had the first time . You know what to expect.”
The programme chairs are:
ELLIOT JEBREEL
The civil servant, currently with the Department for Exiting the European Union, is looking after the modern society and social change, politics, and science and technology tracks.
A “queer Jewranian in a hetero and ashkenormative world”, who was born of Iranian Jewish parents in Manchester, he says he has “struggled to find his place and has tried three youth movements, various communities and numerous volunteer roles.” A Limmud debutant in 2010, the 30-year-old is a trustee of Sephardi Voices UK, volunteers with KeshetUk and is a magistrate.
SARAH PINCH
The Melbourne native, who is
31, moved to London in 2015 and attended her first Limmud Festival in 2016.This year she is overseeing the arts and culture, performance, social programming, mind, body and soul tracks, as well as the Gefiltefest tracks.
A digital marketer with leading agency Ogilvy, she is the author of the food blog, Spaghetti Blogenese, dedicated to finding the best recipe for the popular Italian dish.
EZRA MARGULIES
The youngest of the programming chairs at 25 is in charge of the Torah and philosophy, and history tracks, and the Beit Midrash (for text study). From a mixed “Ashkefardi” family in Monaco, he says he has never found himself at home in Anglo-Jewry but came to Limmud first in 2013 to expand his horizons.
Now working in the private sector, he continues to aspire as a Jewish educator with a special interest in modern Judaism and hopes to expand his MA thesis into a book.